U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held phone talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to discuss the withdrawal of YPG from the Operation Peace Spring area in northern Syria, according to diplomatic sources.
Pompeo said that U.S. military officials have informed their Turkish counterparts about the withdrawal, Anadolu Agency reported.
During the talks held yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Operation Peace Spring, launched by Turkey on October 9. The Erdogan government claimed that its goal is to establish a 30 km-long buffer zone in Syria’s north, where over 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey would resettle.
On October 17, the United States, represented by Vice President Mike Pence, reached a deal with Erdogan to pause Operation Peace Spring. Turkey consented to a 120-hour ceasefire so that Kurdish units making up the coalition of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) could leave the areas of the border security zone that Ankara is attempting to create.
On October 23, Russia and Turkey reached an agreement to give 150 hours to the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG) to withdraw from a 30-km zone along the Syria-Turkey border.
