While the Turkish offensive against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria is on its fifth day, the Syrian Kurds announced on Sunday evening, October 13, that they had reached an agreement with Damascus for a Syrian Army deployment near the Syrian Army. border with Turkey. A few hours ago, the Sana news agency had already announced this deployment.

"In order to confront the Turkish aggression and prevent it from continuing, we have reached an agreement with the Syrian government to deploy the army along the Turkish-Syrian border in order to support the forces. Syrian Democratic Republic (SDF), "the Kurdish administration said in a statement.

In addition to supporting this alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, it is stated in the statement that the Syrian army is "called to release all the localities occupied by the Turkish army and its Syrian counterparts" since the beginning of this offensive. These operations will also allow the liberation of other Syrian cities occupied by the Turkish army like Afrin, reads this document.

State news agency Sana had announced shortly before that the Syrian army would send troops to the north of the country to "face the aggression" of Turkey. It has been conducting an offensive for five days to move the Kurdish militia from the People's Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, considered a "terrorist" organization by Ankara.

"Units of the Syrian Arab Army are on their way to the North to confront Turkish aggression on Syrian territory," Sana said on his website.

Syrian second deployment after Manbij

At the end of 2018, when Ankara had already threatened to launch an operation against Kurdish forces in Syria, the YPG had called on the army to deploy in the north, near the city of Manbij, announcing their own withdrawal from the sector. The army had actually deployed around the city, without entering.

For a long time marginalized and discriminated against by the central authorities of Damascus, the Kurds established a de facto autonomy in the north of the country, thanks to the conflict triggered in 2011. Damascus refuses this autonomy and, in the past, the power even went so far as to call the minority fighters "traitors" because of their alliance with Washington in the fight against ISIS and other jihadist groups.

Fearing a Turkish offensive, the Kurds had begun talks last year with Damascus on the future of their regions, but these negotiations had remained unfulfilled.

SDS does not "trust the promises" of Moscow and Damascus

"The Russians and the Syrian regime have made proposals that could save the lives of millions of people living under our protection.We do not trust their promises.For honestly, it's hard to know who to trust," wrote Sunday on Foreign Policy a senior commander of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi.

"We know that we will have to make painful compromises with Moscow and Bashar al-Assad if we work with them, but if we must choose between the compromises and the genocide of our people, we will surely choose life for our people," he said. he added.

Washington announces the withdrawal of 1,000 soldiers

Pentagon chief Mark Esper on Sunday announced the withdrawal of up to 1,000 US troops from northern Syria - almost all forces in the country - citing an "untenable situation" for troops "may be caught in a vice" between Kurds and Turks.

The announcement on October 6 of the US withdrawal from northern Syria provoked outrage in the United States even in the ranks of the most loyal Republican allies of President Donald Trump.

Faced with the outcry, the host of the White House had reoriented his speech on Monday saying it would "completely destroy the economy of Turkey" if it "exceeded the limits".

On Friday, the United States said it was ready to activate sanctions at any time against Ankara.

With AFP and Reuters