Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said his country's patience with U.S. efforts to create a safe zone in northern Syria was running out, indicating an operation was imminent.  

"We have not achieved any of the results we desired in the east of the Euphrates," Erdogan said at the parliament's opening ceremony in Ankara. "Turkey cannot lose even a single day on this issue. There is no other choice but to act on our own." 

The two NATO allies

Turkey and the United States, agreed in August to establish a buffer zone to keep Syrian Kurdish militants away from the Turkish border and help repatriate refugees.  

Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to launch a unilateral operation against the U.S.-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) if the buffer zone was delayed. Ankara set an end-September deadline for action. 

The YPG, which controls a swathe of land east of the Euphrates in northern Syria, is a key partner for Washington in the fight against ISIL, but Ankara says it is a "terrorist" offshoot of Kurdish separatists in its own territory. 

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Erdogan had hoped the buffer zone would kill two birds with one stone, saying it would also allow the return of up to two million Syrian refugees.   

"We are of course aware of the economic, social and cultural challenges caused by 3.6 million refugees because the Syrian crisis has been protracted," he said.  

"We plan to settle two million people in the safe zones we will establish. We calculated the costs and we will carry out efforts to improve. We will start taking steps as soon as the region is saved from the invasion of terror," the Turkish president added. 

He accused Western countries of deliberately refusing to share the refugee burden, saying they did so to bring Turkey to its knees. 

"I am asking you: Is Turkey a weak country that can accept such an imposition, blackmailing and vile game?" Erdogan said. 

The Turkish military has twice launched cross-border operations into Syria against the YPG and ISIL, in 2016 and 2018. 

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Moscow was watching closely after Turkey said it would act alone on its plans to form a "safe zone" in the northeast of Syria, which is a close ally of Russia. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow that Turkey had the right to defend itself, but that Syria's territorial integrity must be preserved.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)