No PKK/YPG in safe zone with Turkey on Syria border: US

WASHINGTON

Washington is working with Turkey on "a safe zone of some length along the Turkish border," and the zone would have no YPG/PKK forces, the U.S. Special Representative for Syria Engagement said Monday.

"We’re looking for a solution that would meet everyone’s needs," James Jeffrey, who also serves as the special envoy for the anti-Daesh coalition, said at a news conference at the State Department.

"We’re working 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.

"We understand that President [Donald] Trump has made that clear to President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan," he said.

Last month, the Pentagon announced that a few hundred troops would remain in Syria after the U.S. pullout in order to create a safe zone along the Turkey-Syria border.

Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said the troops would be part of a multinational force.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the safe zone would be created "on the basis of the agreement that was signed between Turkey and Syria in 1998" known as the Adana agreement.

Signed in Turkey’s southern city of Adana, it is aimed at easing Ankara’s concerns regarding the PKK terrorist group.

As a result, terrorist training camps were closed in Syria and terrorist elements were refused service by Syrian banks.

Jeffrey said, however, the ultimate goal of the U.S. in Syria was the defeat of the Daesh terrorist group.

"The mission is defeat ISIS, not to operate in any safe zone," he added, using another name for Daesh.

Jeffrey also mentioned that the U.S. still does not know the whereabouts of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Baghdadi's location and status have been a mystery over the past few years, and multiple claims have been made that he has been killed on various battlefields in Iraq and Syria.

"No, we don’t know where [Baghdadi] is, and finding the top leadership of ISIS or other terrorist groups is always a priority," said Jeffrey.