Syrian Kurds fear US sellout to Turkey on ‘safe zone’
Zarif meets Assad and Erdogan; is Erdogan banking on Trump to avoid S-400 sanctions?
Syrian Kurds uneasy with US "safe zone"
US Syria envoy James Jeffrey said the United States is willing to consider a safe zone inside Syria on the Turkish border that would include a limited number of Turkish forces but that is free of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish militia that makes up the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the primary US on-the-ground partner in the battle against Islamic State.
Jeffrey added that the YPG is “the PKK's offshoot,” referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party, which Turkey, the United States and the European Union all consider a terrorist organization.
The PKK-YPG link has been mostly in the category of "dare not speak its name," given the effectiveness of the SDF in the US-led coalition defeat of the Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIS and by its Arabic initials Daesh.
