Syria wants Turkish, American troops' departure

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - Bashar al-Jaafari, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, said on Friday that the US and Turkish troops should pull out of his country "immediately and unconditionally."

Jaafari made the demand as he was heading the Syrian government delegation at the Russian-sponsored Syrian peace talks in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan to end the six-years-long civil war, reported Reuters.

Hundreds of American soldiers and Marines are embedded with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a professionalized militia that has been battling the Islamic State (IS) group in the north and east of that country.

The Turkish military, on the other hand, controls a pocket of land west of the River Euphrates where it made an incursion in mid-2016 to deny the SDF's leading force People's Protection Units (YPG) a chance to create a contiguous Kurdish-run autonomous region along its border.

The insistence of the US and Turkey to keep their forces on Syrian territory without the consent of the government was an aggression on Syria’s sovereignty and contradicted the provisions of the UN Charter and relevant international resolutions, Jaafari said.

Pentagon officials have pledged to continue to support the SDF in efforts to stabilize and secure areas liberated even after the complete destruction of the IS.

He accused Ankara of supporting terrorism and added his country did not have any dialogue with the "Turkish regime" which was along with Russia and Iran, two primary backers of Damascus, a participant of the Astana talks.

In Astana, Turkey acts as a guarantor on behalf of the Islamist-dominated opposition groups that rule mainly in Syria's Idlib province where it holds another contingent tasked with observing a ceasefire between Damascus army and al-Qaeda affiliate rebels at some dozen locations.

Turkey separately wants to send its army to the isolated Kurdish enclave of Afrin that remains between Idlib and the Turkish-held pocket eastward.

Syrian envoy's remarks followed his President Bashar al-Assad's charging of the Kurdish-led groups with treason over their alliance with the US.

In Syria, Russia and Iran also keep thousands of troops and advisers who have helped Assad recapture much of territory he lost to rebels and the IS.

Editing by Sam A.