US pullout from Iran deal rattles Turkey’s Syria agenda
Ankara faces a navigational nightmare in Syria as each new regional development seems to push its divergent objectives further apart.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal has added new complications for Turkey’s two overriding quests in Syria: to see the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) defeated and President Bashar al-Assad and his regime ousted. These two aims were already headed toward incompatibility in the crosscurrents that have shaped this crisis.
Turkey, determined to stand against the American-supported YPG, launched an operation against the group in January in Afrin, disregarding not just US but international disapproval.
