- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

US to Take Back Heavy Arms Supplied to Kurdish YPG - Reports

© AP Photo / APTVThis Saturday, April. 29, 2017 still taken from video, shows Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) standing guard as U.S. forces take up positions in the northern village of Darbasiyah, Syria
This Saturday, April. 29, 2017 still taken from video, shows Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) standing guard as U.S. forces take up positions in the northern village of Darbasiyah, Syria - Sputnik International
Subscribe
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Washington confirmed its commitment to take back the heavy weapons it had supplied to Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria but did not set a time frame for the process, a US official told Turkish media following a high-level meeting in Ankara.

"We did tell them that we do intend to fulfill that commitment. But I can’t give you a specific time frame," a US official told the Hurriyet Daily News on Wednesday, specifying that only heavy weapons delivered to the YPG would be collected.

READ MORE: Turkish Military Column Reportedly Enters Aleppo Province in Pursuit of Kurds

The official added that Washington would continue to cooperate with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to ensure victory over the Daesh terrorist group (banned in Russia).

Syrian fighters from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) look on during the funeral of a comrade in the Kurdish-majority town of Afrin in northern Syria, on January 23, 2018, as Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies pressed an assault on the border enclave - Sputnik International
World
US Threatens to Cut Aid to Kurdish Units That Go Against Turkey in Afrin
A US delegation of officials from the defense and justice departments headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary Jonathan Cohen visited Ankara from January 23 to January 24 to meet with a Turkish delegation headed by Deputy Undersecretary of Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Muhtar Gun. The meeting took place amid Ankara's operation "Olive Branch" against US-backed Kurdish militias in the Syrian northern Afrin district.

Ankara considers the YPG, which is part of the SDF, to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), listed as a terror group in Turkey. Turkey has repeatedly expressed hope that the United States would stop supplying Syria's Kurds with weapons due to the fact that the Daesh would soon be defeated.

On Saturday, the Turkish Armed Forces launched an operation against Kurdish forces in Afrin. Damascus has strongly condemned Ankara's actions, with the Syrian Foreign Ministry calling them a violation of country's sovereignty.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала