The safe zone will be operated by a multinational force in order to separate Turkish and Kurdish forces in Syria.
US Special Envoy on Syria James Jeffrey said no Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) forces will be allowed in the upcoming safe zone between Northern Syria and Turkey, according to the Anadolu News Agency.
Speaking at a press briefing Monday, the envoy said this was agreed upon by US President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“In terms of the Kurds, what we are working with is with Turkey to have a safe zone of some length along the Turkish border where there would be no YPG forces, because Turkey feels very nervous about the YPG and their ties to the PKK [Workers' Party of Kurdistan]. We understand that President Trump has made that clear to President Erdogan,” Jeffrey said.
“But we also do not want anyone mishandling our [Syrian Democratic Forces] partners, some of whom are Kurds, so therefore we are working for a solution that will meet everybody's needs,” he added.
According to Jeffrey, despite the US' intention to maintain a “very limited number” of troops in Syria, its main mission will still be the defeat of what remains of Daesh, not operating the safe zone.
“We're not really looking at a coalition to be peacekeepers or anything like that. We're asking coalition personnel to continue to contribute and to up their contribution to our de-ISIS operations in Syria, and we're getting a…