This week, the United States and Turkey achieved a significant breakthrough. After many months of negotiations, the two countries agreed to coordinate on a joint buffer zone in northern Syria. This development offers a rare and fleeting opportunity for President Trump to step back from the brink of disaster. The president can salvage his Syria policy by making clear the United States will stick around to defend its vital national interests there.
Ever since Trump announced by tweet last December that he was withdrawing all U.S. troops from Syria, without consulting most of his military commanders, the United States’ Syria strategy — especially in the northeast — has been a muddle. To his credit, the president partially walked back the decision, announcing in February that a small, residual force would remain to keep the Islamic State down, keep our partnership with the Kurds and keep an eye on Iranian forces.
But the U.S.-Turkey rift, pushed to the breaking point by Turkish threats to unilaterally invade northeast Syria, risks turning that ambiguous U.S. policy into a total failure. If the Turks invade, the Kurds might ally with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to the advantage of Iran and the Islamic State. Any remaining U.S. leverage to push for an acceptable political solution would vanish.
After months of scant progress, the State Department announced Wednesday that Turkey and the United States agreed to coordinate establishment of a safe zone on the Syrian side of the border as a “peace corridor,” starting with a joint operations center inside Turkey to work out the details.
“The plan is for U.S. troops to work to patrol with Turkish forces to ensure security in the safe zone,” a senior State Department official told me, cautioning that the details aren’t final. “By strengthening U.S.-Turkish cooperation in the one area of the Syria conflict where we were at odds, this agreement also advances broader U.S. objectives for a resolution of the Syria conflict.”
If the United States wants to have any influence over what happens next in Syria, it will need to resolve its rift with Turkey, which has complex and serious causes. The Syrian Kurds, our allies whom we armed to fight the Islamic State, must be assured that Turkish forces won’t slaughter them. The Turks must be assured that the Kurds will withdraw from the border. We are not there yet. But this interim statement is a crucial step in the right direction.
Content Source: The Washington Post
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