Earlier on Friday, US Senator Lindsey Graham called for a joint military presence of EU countries and the US in Syria in order to protect American-backed Kurdish forces in the country from Ankara, as well as to prevent the Daesh terrorist group from regaining its positions.
The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing military sources, that the Pentagon was working on a plan to create a safe zone in the north-eastern part of Syria in order to protect the US-backed Kurdish units.
According to the newspaper, US officials are calling on the leaders of the UK, Germany and France to create a safe zone in Syria and to send a total of 1,500 troops. Washington, in turn, would be ready to leave about 200 troops that would support their allies and provide them with intelligence.
In early December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Ankara was ready to start a new military operation against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Units), which are prohibited in Turkey, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates if the United States does not facilitate the withdrawal of the militia from the region. However, he suspended the operation following a phone conversation with President Donald Trump, who announced that US troops would withdraw from Syria.