Dramatic changes took place in the Middle-East during the past week with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launching an assault on northern Syria. On October 13, Erdogan said the Ankara-led offensive was extending further along the Turkish-Syrian border. "We will advance 30-35 kilometers into the territory, suitably to the 'safe zone' map as we declared before," noted the Turkish president.

The area swept by the offensive was controlled by U.S.-backed Kurdish Group YPG, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization. And it seems that Turkey's action had got a "tacit understanding" by Washington.

Right after Erdogan's decision, U.S. President Donald Trump said he will pull the U.S. troops out of northern Syria. "We want to bring our soldiers back home, these are the endless wars. We're not fighting, we're policing to a large extend. We're policing in certain areas. We're not police," said Trump.

The president's words were considered to be a "green light" for Turkey's move by the Kurdish administration. "This move, or green light that Trump gave to Erdogan will actually complicate the crisis in the region and will provide ISIL with an opportunity to regenerate and control areas such as Raqa and Deir Ezzor," said Abdulkarim Omar, head of the Kurdish administration's foreign relations commission.

But as the Turkish soldiers push deeper in Syria, the U.S. seems to be making a U-turn in its attitude. When speaking at the White House on October 9, U.S. President Donald Trump said Ankara will pay very "big economic price" if Erdogan acts, in his words, "unfairly."

"Right now he's holding, in all fairness to him, he's holding millions of people that would be all over the place if he was not holding them, so he wants to repatriate, he wants to have them go back into the area that he's looking at," Trump said.

"But we'll see. We'll see how he does it. He could do it in a soft manner, he could do it in a very tough manner and if he does it unfairly he's going to pay a very big economic price."

The Kurds used to be Washington's main regional partner in the fight against ISIL. Marginalized for decades, they have been asking Damascus for more autonomous power. But on Sunday, the Kurdish administration said they have reached a deal with Damascus on Syrian troop deployment to confront Ankara's offensive.

Fawza Youssel, a Kurdish Political Leader, said "We are telling the world. Look, the ISIL group is coming back again, but this time its name is Erdogan."

It certainly seems to be a quick game of re-positioning and re-alignment in a devastating war with no end in sight.