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Did US pressure force Turkey to let Syrian-Kurdish earthquake aid into rebel-held northwest?

Ankara relents, allowing the first humanitarian aid and disaster relief to enter devastated northwest Syria from the country's Kurdish-run northeast.
Nurse anaesthetist Abdelbaset Khalil (2nd L) stands with others on the rubble of his house following a deadly earthquake, near the hospital in the town of Harim, in Syria's rebel-held northwestern Idlib province at the border with Turkey, on February 11, 2023. - Following the 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria on February 6, toppling hundreds of buildings and leaving a death toll of at least 3,581 in Syria, supplies have been slow to arrive in the war-torn country where years of conflict have
Nurse anaesthetist Abdelbaset Khalil (2nd L) stands with others on the rubble of his house following a deadly earthquake, near the hospital in the town of Harim, in Syria's rebel-held northwestern Idlib province at the border with Turkey, on Feb. 11, 2023. - AAREF WATAD/AFP via Getty Images
Amberin Zaman headshot (new)
Amberin Zaman
@amberinzaman

The first aid convoys from Kurdish-run northeast Syria were allowed to cross into the northwest part of the country that was leveled by the massive earthquakes centered in Turkey, Syrian Kurdish leaders confirmed to Al-Monitor Monday, saying that US pressure had likely forced Ankara to cave.

The breakthrough followed a weeklong standoff between the Kurdish-led, self-described Autonomous Administration of Northeast and East Syria (AANES) and Turkish-backed Sunni rebel groups.

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