The Pentagon will not participate in the military operation that Ankara intends to conduct in northern Syria, this is stated in the release of the White House, published after a telephone conversation between the presidents of the United States and Turkey, Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Washington has confirmed that Turkey’s planned operation will begin “soon.”
“The US forces that defeated the local ISIS caliphate will no longer be in close proximity”, – the statement said.
At the same time, the White House emphasized that now Turkey will be responsible for all ISIS militants captured over the past two years after the defeat of the terrorist group.
The trump administration also recalled that previously demanded from France, Germany and other European countries to take back captured militants who come from these States.
“The US will not keep them for many years and for a huge price for American taxpayers”, – the White house noted.
On the eve of Erdogan said that a decision on the Turkish operation in northern Syria east of the Euphrates could be made in the coming days. He added that the purpose of the operation will be to clear the Syrian border with Turkey from the self-defense forces of the Syrian Kurds, create a security zone there and to accommodate the Syrian refugees in Turkey.
The representative of the US-backed Arab-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mustafa Bali threatened Turkey with a “total war”.