Damascus rejects US-Turkey safe zone agreement in northern Syria

The Syrian government on Thursday rejected a US-Turkey deal to establish a buffer zone in northern Syria, blaming Kurds in the north for the proposal, state media cited Foreign Ministry source as saying.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Syrian government on Thursday rejected a US-Turkey deal to establish a buffer zone in northern Syria, blaming Kurds in the north for the proposal, state media cited Foreign Ministry source as saying.

The claims come one day after the US and Turkey announced they have reached an agreement to establish a joint operations center to create a safe zone in northern Syria.

READ MORE: US and Turkey reach accord, but concerns of Syrian Kurds continue

“Syria categorically and blatantly rejects the agreement between the American and Turkish occupiers on the establishment of a so-called safe zone” in northern Syria, a source from the Syrian Foreign Ministry told state news agency, SANA.

“Syria’s Kurds who have accepted to become a tool in this aggressive US-Turkish project bear a historical responsibility in this regard,” the source added.

“Syria calls on the international community and the UN to condemn US-Turkish flagrant aggression, which constitutes a dangerous escalation and poses a threat to peace and security in the region and the world, and hinders all positive efforts for solving the crisis in Syria.”

Senior Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, over the past few months, have repeatedly threatened to invade northern and northeastern Syria, currently self-administered and secured by the US-backed Kurdish forces.

Ankara considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as the Syrian branch of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish insurgency group Turkey, the EU, and the US designates as a “terrorist organization.”

The announced US-Turkey deal on the buffer zone remains unclear as to how wide a corridor it will be. It is also not clear whether the creation of the zone will address all of Turkey’s security concerns in that region. 

Officials from the Syrian Kurdish administration are yet to publicly comment on the deal.

Editing by Nadia Riva