ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey’s president has renewed a pledge for a cross-border military operation into northeastern Syria.
In a speech Sunday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “We’ve entered Afrin, Jarablus, al-Bab. Now we will enter the east of the Euphrates.”
Talks between U.S. and Turkish officials have stalled over creating a safe zone in Syria east of the Euphrates River. The aim is to address Turkey’s security concerns about Syrian Kurdish militias in the region.
People were interested in these podcasts
Turkey views these Kurdish militias - who battled the Islamic State group alongside U.S. forces - as terrorists, allied with a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.
Erdogan added: “We have shared this with the U.S. and Russia.”
Turkey conducted two operations into northern Syria in 2016 and 2018 to clear the areas of IS extremists and U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militias.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.