The United States on Tuesday warned Turkey against launching a new military operation in northern Syria, saying the turbulent NATO ally would put American soldiers at risk.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday that Turkey would soon launch a new military operation in northern Syria, to create a 30 kilometer “safe zone” along the border.
The United States, through US State Department spokesman Ned Price, said it was “deeply concerned.”
“We condemn any escalation. We support maintaining the current ceasefire lines,” he said.
In New York, the UN spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, also marked the opposition of the Organization to a possible new military action by Turkey in Syria.
“We defend the territorial integrity of Syria, and what Syria needs is not more military operations wherever they come from,” he said, when asked about the will Turkey to act militarily again in Syria.
“What Syria needs is a political solution. What Syria needs is more humanitarian aid, and those are the two things we are working on,” the spokesperson added.
Turkey has launched three offensives in Syria since 2016, with the aim of eliminating Syrian Kurdish fighters who supported Washington’s campaign against the Islamic State (IS) group.
Ankara launched its latest offensive in Syria in October 2019, when then-US President Donald Trump claimed that US troops had completed their mission in Syria and would withdraw.
Faced with a strong outcry even among allies of the Republican President, Vice President Mike Pence had traveled to Turkey and reached an agreement with Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a break in the fighting.
“We expect Turkey to abide by the October 2019 joint communiqué,” Ned Price said.
“We recognize Turkey’s legitimate security concerns on its southern border. But any new offensive would further undermine regional stability and endanger US forces in the coalition’s campaign against ISIS,” he added.
The Turkish president’s statements on a new offensive come as he threatens to block Finland and Sweden from joining NATO.
Turkey has long accused the Nordic countries of harboring militants from the Kurdish separatist movement PKK, banned in Turkey.
After Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw troops in 2019, Kurdish fighters sought protection from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia, the regime’s main backer in Syria.
Russia and Turkey then brokered a ceasefire that has largely held so far.
Donald Trump quickly reversed his decision to withdraw, and some 900 American soldiers officially remain in Syria, as members of the coalition against IS.
President Joe Biden has shown no willingness to withdraw these soldiers, despite the United States exiting Afghanistan in 2021, after two decades of war.
