With the United States and Turkey agreeing on a road map for settling a longstanding dispute in the contested Syrian city of Manbij, experts warn that Pentagon-backed Kurdish groups could get boxed out.

Following a meeting today between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Washington, the State Department issued a joint statement saying that both sides planned on “taking steps to ensure the security and stability” in the one-time Islamic State (IS) bastion west of the Euphrates River. The statement offered no specifics, but a Turkish government spokesman said today’s meeting included an agreement on a timetable for withdrawing US-allied Kurds from Manbij, a sticking point that has strained ties with Washington.

Jim Jeffrey, a former US ambassador to Turkey, told Al-Monitor that the deal calls for removing cadres from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) within 90 days. Among the sticking points are how locals will secure the area and whether PYD sympathizers will be allowed to stay.

“The problem is, we don’t know where the PYD [stands],” said Jeffrey. “The local US command really like them.”