Tensions Rise Between Ankara, Washington over Syria Invasion

Since the start of Operation “Olive Branch” by Ankara and its allied militants, Turkey has stressed that its forces would spread to the East and now Erdogan says his army would soon invade Manbij and continue the assault to the border with Iraq some 900km away.

"We will be clearing our borders of terrorists up to the territory of Iraq. Manbij will be also cleared of terrorists, as we promised. I am addressing those who urge us to stop the operation as soon as possible — if you were hit by missiles, what would you do?" Erdogan said in remarks that are deemed as implied threat to the US that has stationed some 3,000 military men in the Kurdish-held city in Syria's Northwestern province of Aleppo.

As Erdogan warned that Turkey will rid Syria's Manbij of terrorists after Afrin and nobody should be bothered by this, US claimed that its military forces are deployed in and around Manbij to deter Turkish and Washington-backed fighters from attacking each other, a claim that has already been refuted by the Kurds.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also warned that it was "necessary for them (US) to immediately withdraw from Manbij" as well as take "more concrete steps rather than words" to end support for the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

A Turkish assault on Manbij could bring its forces into direct conflict with the Americans, with unpredictable results, while the US has kept calm about its decision over a pull out from the town, and sometimes sends mixed messages.

As the United States has promised once again to stop arming Syria-based Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers a threat to its security, a leading US military figure declared that Washington troops will not withdraw from Manbij, as it means that Hundreds of US troops risk being caught up in Ankara's military push into Northern Syria as Turkish top officials pledge to move into Manbij.

Ankara said late November 2017 that US President Donald Trump told Turkey's President that he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish fighters in Syria. But Washington continued providing Kurdish fighters with more military hardware in Syria despite Trump's promise to Erdogan to halt arms shipment to them.

Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of the United States Central Command, said that withdrawing US forces from Manbij is "not something we are looking into".

The Pentagon also would not answer questions about the future of US troops deployed to the key town in Syria amid demands by Ankara that American forces withdraw to allow for a Turkish military incursion against Washington-backed Kurdish forces there.

"They'll stay or they'll go. Don't know what the answer will be," the director of the US military's joint staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie, stressed, calling it "a policy decision."

Also in a phone call with Erdogan, Trump has raised concerns that Ankara’s ongoing military operation in neighboring Syria, if not wound down, may result in a direct clash between the two NATO allies, as Kurdish fighters look to the US to help in the fight against Turkish troops in Manbij, some are accusing Washington of double standards after it did nothing to protect Afrin from “Turkish occupation”.

Referring to the "dark records of Washington in betraying its partners", Analyst Seyed Mostafa Khoshcheshm believes that "although an Ankara assault on Manbij might have seemed unpalatable to the US, given the formerly expressed views of Washington officials, the US administration's performance on the ground in the Afrin battle and the US militaries' inaction and lack of a strong and expressive policy displays that Trump prefers to keep away from battle situations, specially against a NATO ally, making the United States’ future role in Syria foggy".

The US administration officials have stated plans to keep troops in Syria even after the defeat of ISIL. Washington was once justifying its deployment of ground troops in Syria, which violates the embattled nation’s sovereignty, by citing the need to fight ISIL, but now it has started mentioning Iran's growing influence as its next excuse to remain in the war-ravaged country without a UN mandate or permission from the Damascus government.

The analyst underlined that as "the US has recognized that the relationship with Turkey has arrived at a breaking point", and “it, hence, vowed to cut arms shipments to the Kurdish militias, but it yet continued to arm the Kurds in a world where actions speak louder than words".

"Yet, endangering the lives of you soldiers is completely different from arms trade and Afrin was a good test to measure the US support for the Kurds," Khoshcheshm went on to say. "The remarks made by the Kurds in despair prove that they have come one step closer to realizing the US policies.

On the other hand, he said, it’s not clear whether Turkey "would dare to raid Manbij while Americans are present in there. Any such move would mean declaring war on the US, and neither party seems to be really serious about a direct confrontation.

He said although Turkey has failed to score a major win in Afrin, where the Turkish army troops and allied militants outnumber the Kurdish fighters by 5 to 1, “Manbij would certainly be a key flashpoint city in the Turkish invasion of Northern Syria and would certainly be the best test to the Ankara-Washington ties and also to verify the claims made by the two sides, if the Olive Branch forces could ever expand the scope of their operation to the region."

Turkey’s Operation ‘Olive Branch’ kicked off last Saturday from air and ground around the area of Afrin in Syria's Aleppo to oust the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has stressed that Turkish offensive in Afrin is part of Ankara's strategy based on supporting terrorists.