ANKARA (Reuters) - An agreement between Ankara and Washington to suspend Turkey's military operation in northern Syria was contingent on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's request for US approval for a truce, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.

Even before US Vice President Mike Pence's plane landed in Ankara, Turkey had rejected Pence's call for a ceasefire unless the YPG agreed to withdraw from a "safe zone" 20 miles deep along the border, the official said. Turkish - Syrian.

On Thursday, the US vice president announced a five-day halt to the Turkish offensive, after more than four hours of talks at the presidential palace in Ankara.

Turkish military convoy on a pro-Syrian border road (Getty Images)

13 items
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country had reached with the US delegation an agreement of 13 items, to remove what he described as terrorist organizations from the safe area to a depth of twenty miles within five days, that is, next Tuesday.

Ankara classifies the YPG as a terrorist organization because of its links to the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish army in southeast Turkey.

The Turkish official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, said there were many differences in talks between US and Turkish officials, but the main issue was Ankara's insistence that the truce is not open-ended.

"The crucial point in the meeting was when Erdogan asked for a deadline if they wanted to stop operations," the Turkish official said. "Erdogan said it could be 24 or 48 hours. Pence said that that time frame was too short and he could not make that decision," the Turkish official said. By himself".

With the Turkish president refusing to make concessions, the issue was discussed at a second expanded meeting.

The Turkish official points out that after receiving a response, the parties agreed on a 120-hour deadline;

Macron criticized Washington and Ankara's dealings with their NATO partners on the Syrian file (Reuters)

Macron criticizes
In a related context, French President Emmanuel Macron attacked the Turkish military operation in northern Syria, and criticized Washington and Ankara's dealings with their NATO partners, saying that he "discovered on Twitter - like all people - that America decided to withdraw its troops from northern Syria."

The French president said in Brussels that he will meet his Turkish counterpart with the participation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson soon, and is likely to hold the meeting in London.

"It is important that we meet and coordinate between the three European countries and Turkey. We want to know where Turkey is heading and how to bring it back to a reasonable position that makes it possible to talk at length about its internal security, its relationship to our agenda and the right solidarity in NATO," Macron said.

European Council President Donald Tusk said the agreement reached between Turkey and the United States on the "spring of peace" process is not a ceasefire agreement, but a demand for the Kurds to yield. At a news conference in Brussels, Tusk called on Turkey to withdraw its troops immediately and to respect international law.

Erdogan's statement
On the other hand, the Turkish president said that if the United States can fulfill its pledge on time, then the operation "spring of peace" will stop, and all US sanctions against Turkey will be lifted; but he announced that Turkish troops will remain in the region to ensure security, stressing the resumption of military operation If the agreement is not implemented.

His US counterpart, Donald Trump, said in a tweet on Twitter that Erdogan desperately wanted a successful ceasefire, and the Kurds likewise wanted a final solution.

On the ground, Al-Jazeera correspondent in Syria reported that the city of Ras Al-Ain in the countryside of al-Hasakah on the Syrian-Turkish border witnesses calm after the ceasefire agreement came into force, and explained that the city is witnessing occasional sporadic fire by the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Turkish army, in cooperation with factions of the Syrian armed opposition, launched on October 9 a large-scale military operation in the area east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria, to expel the SDF from them and establish a safe area for the return of Syrian refugees to their country.