US discusses excluding Turkey from Syria safe zone in talks with PKK/PYD

U.S. delegations have held three different meetings in one week with terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)’s Syrian affiliate, the PYD, as the Pentagon attempts to fill the vacuum in northeastern Syria after U.S. President Donald Trump promised to withdraw troops from the region.

Within a week, three different meetings with PKK/PYD terrorists were held in the northeastern Syrian cities of Qamishli, Ayn Issa and Ayn al-Arab.

The meetings mainly discussed the establishment of a safe zone in northeastern Syria that excludes Turkey, as representatives of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Forces, including General Joseph Votel, met with high-ranking PKK terrorists in the American base in Ayn Issa.

Reports of what transpired during the meeting have been scarce in U.S. media, but it is said that Votel is working on “an offer to sustain the coalition’s military presence” in Syria.

In a three-hour meeting, the U.S. delegation vowed joint control over the to-be-established safe zone with PKK terrorists.

It was proposed that PKK terrorist Şahin Cilo and an American lieutenant head a force that will oversee the creation of the said safe zone.

President Trump had announced plans in December 2018 to withdraw roughly 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria after a phone call with Turkey’s Erdogan in which the two leaders agreed on the need for more effective coordination on the war-torn country.

Reports have suggested U.S. forces will leave within 60 to 100 days.

Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria was followed by resignations from U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat Daesh Brett Mcgurk.

The withdrawal comes as Turkey prepares for a military operation in northeastern Syria against the YPG/PKK terrorist group.

Since 2016, Ankara has carried out two similar military operations in northern Syria.