US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday that Turkey's military operation in northeastern Syria was "damaging US-Turkish relations," adding that the United States had not abandoned its Kurdish partners.
Esper told a news conference that senior US officials had spoken to their Turkish counterparts and called on them to stop the Turkish military operation, called the "spring of peace," because of its "negative effects of destabilization throughout the region."
He said the Turks had shown no sign of their willingness to stop their military operation, which began last Wednesday, which Ankara says is aimed at establishing a safe area in northern Syria to allow the return of displaced Syrians, and the elimination of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which Turkey calls the terrorist organization, which forms the YPG. Her spine.
The SDF, which controls large swathes of northeastern Syria, is receiving US equipment and military advice.
A call with Akar
The US defense secretary said his conclusion that Ankara was not ready to halt its military offensive followed a telephone call on Thursday with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar.
At the same press conference, US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milay said the Turkish ground offensive in Syria against Kurdish forces remained "relatively limited," adding that the Turks had "fired artillery strikes and fired tanks from the northern side of the border." I went to the south (the Syrian side) and we think it is relatively limited. "
The US Department of Defense said in a statement that it opposed what it called "uncoordinated Turkish activities in northern Syria," stressing that these activities jeopardize the progress made by the international coalition against ISIS.