MOSCOW — Turkey and the United States have agreed on a plan for the People's Protection Units (YPG) to leave the northern Syrian city of Manbij. Ankara has long sought to control the territory but couldn’t make a move because of US support for the Kurdish militia.

Al-Monitor reported earlier that many in Washington interpreted the deal as an effort to re-establish America’s partnership with a key NATO ally. It came as no surprise that NATO’s senior leadership quickly endorsed the agreement.

Damascus, however, made it clear that the deal is unacceptable to the Syrian government. Days before the United States and Turkey announced the Manbij agreement, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem warned, “Neither Turkey nor the US has the right to negotiate the [fate of] Syrian cities.”

Russia has been closely observing the situation in northern Syria for many months as one of the three major themes in the Syrian conflict, along with developments in the south, where Moscow is trying to negotiate a modus vivendi for Israel and pro-Iranian forces, and in eastern Syria, where the presence of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces is seen as a next big issue for Russia’s policy on Syria.