US pumps brakes as Ankara touts Manbij deal
No agreement has been struck between Turkey and the United States on the control of Manbij, though Ankara is eager to report one with its somewhat estranged ally.
By now it's become customary: Whenever Ankara says it's reached agreement with Washington on Syria, Washington responds, “Not quite.”
So it was yesterday, when State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert declared, “We don’t have any agreements yet with the Government of Turkey.” She was responding to reporters’ queries regarding an earlier assertion by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that Turkey and the United States had agreed on a deal whereby the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) would leave the town of Manbij and the city would be patrolled jointly by US and Turkish troops. “We are continuing to have ongoing conversations regarding Syria and other issues of mutual concern,” she noted.
The SDF-backed Manbij Military Council stepped into the fray with its spokesman, Shervan Darwish, dismissing Turkey’s claims that the council would be dismantled.
Today, a seemingly unfazed Cavusoglu repeated the claims that US and Turkish forces will control the mainly Arab town that was wrested by US-backed SDF fighters from the Islamic State after a bloody battle in August 2016.
