Pompeo speaks to Turkish FM over Syrian Kurds

World
Europe

‍U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday he was "optimistic" a way could be found to protect Syrian Kurds while allowing Turkey to "defend their country from terrorists" following a U.S. pullout from Syria. "We are confident we can achieve an outcome that achieves both of those," Pompeo told journalists in Abu Dhabi.

It was his latest stop in a regional tour aimed at reassuring allies after a shock December announcement by President Donald Trump that U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Syria.

Pompeo's remarks follow tensions between the U.S. and Turkey over the fate of Washington's Syrian Kurdish allies in the fight against terrorist group ISIL.

Turkey had reacted angrily to suggestions that Trump's plan to withdraw troops was conditional on the safety of the U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters, seen by the Turkish government as terrorists.

The U.S. State Department said Pompeo had spoken to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on the phone and the two agreed on the importance of continuing U.S.-Turkish consultations as part of the deliberate and coordinated withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R) speaks at a press conference following the Turkish Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, in Ankara, January 9, 2019. /VCG Photo

Pompeo told Cavusoglu the U.S. is committed to addressing Turkish security concerns along the Turkey-Syria border, the State Department said.

Earlier on Thursday, Cavusoglu repeated that threat, telling NTV television: "if the (pullout) is put off with ridiculous excuses like Turks are massacring Kurds, which do not reflect the reality, we will implement this decision."

Multiple operations including American-backed assaults have ousted ISIL jihadists from most of the swathes of Syria and Iraq they captured in 2014.

But Trump's announcement raised fears of a long-threatened Turkish assault against the Kurds.

Pompeo said that Washington recognized "the Turkish people's right and (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan's right to defend their country from terrorists."

But, he added, "we also know that those fighting alongside of us for all this time deserve to be protected as well."

(Top image: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to students at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, January 10, 2019. /VCG Photo)

(Within inputs from AFP and Xinhua)