Putin, Erdogan Agree Turkish Operation Can Continue in Syria

T. Belman.  No mention of Turkey’s plan to settle the area with Syrian refugees now living in Turkey.

Also no mention of what Russia intends to do with the rest of eastern Syria lying to the south of this zone.

Leaders agree Syrian Kurdish fighters will move 30 km away from border area within 150 hours, beginning at noon Wednesday ? Deal lets Turkey maintain control ONLY of areas it pushed into since it launched incursion

Reuters  The Associated Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting in Sochi, Russia October 22, 2019Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS

Russian and Turkish leaders have made a deal to share control of Syria’s northeast that requires Kurdish fighters to clear the entire length of the Syria-Turkey border.

The deal allows Turkey to maintain control of areas it pushed into launching its offensive into Syria earlier this month.

The agreement allows Russian and Syrian troops to control the rest of the border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also agreed that their troops will conduct joint patrols of the border area.

The two leaders reached a deal in which Syrian Kurdish fighters will move 30 kilometers (18 miles) away from a border area in northeast Syria within 150 hours.Speaking at a joint news conference with Putin Tuesday, Erdogan said that the 150-hour time period would begin at noon Wednesday.

Turkey and Russia would then conduct joint patrols, he said.

The agreement came after the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish-led forces withdrew from an area in northern Syria that Turkey demanded be cleared of Kurdish fighters.

The deal is announced after Russia had charged earlier that Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria was violating Syria’s territorial integrity, the Interfax news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov as saying.

After his meeting with Putin, Erdogan said that up to 1,300 Syrian Kurdish fighters have yet to vacate areas in northeastern Syria as a Turkish-U.S. cease-fire agreement is running out.

The Turkish president said that up to 800 Syrian Kurdish fighters have already left under the deal that brought a five-day pause in fighting following Turkey’s incursion into northeast Syrian to drive the Kurdish militiamen away from its border areas.

Erdogan’s meeting with Putin in Sochi focused on talks about border areas that are currently held by Syrian government forces.

Turkey says all Kurdish YPG militia forces must leave a “safe zone” it wants to establish along a section of its border with Syria. Ankara views the YPG as terrorists with links to Kurdish insurgents operating in southeast Turkey.

Germany suggests ‘international’ security zone in Syria

Also Tuesday, Germany’s defense minister proposed the establishment of an internationally controlled security zone in Syria.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told German news agency DPA on Tuesday that “the creation of an internationally controlled security zone with the inclusion of Turkey and Russia” would have the goal of deescalating the situation in northern Syria.

Kramp-Karrenbauer said the German parliament would need to decide on whether German troops could participate in such a zone. She also told broadcaster Deutsche Welle that Chancellor Angela Merkel had been informed of the proposal.

Iraq: U.S. forces not authorised to stay

Iraq’s military says U.S. troops leaving Syria and heading to neighboring Iraq do not have permission to stay in the country.

Tuesday’s statement says that American troops currently withdrawing from Syria have acquired permission from the Iraqi Kurdish regional government to enter Iraq to later be transferred out of the country.

It added that these troops do not have any approval to stay in Iraq.

The statement appears to contradict U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper who has said that under the current plan, all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the military will continue to conduct operations against the Islamic State group to prevent its resurgence.

Esper said he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift the more than 700 troops leaving Syria into western Iraq.

DPA contributed to this report