The United States said Tuesday it had brokered an extension of a ceasefire between pro-Turkish fighters and Syrian Kurds at the flashpoint town of Manbij and was seeking a broader understanding with Ankara, Agence France-Presse reported.
The Manbij truce, which had recently expired, “is extended through the end of the week, and we will, obviously, look to see that ceasefire extended as far as possible into the future,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
The extension comes amid fears of an assault by Turkey on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, a week after Turkish-supported Islamist rebels toppled Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad.
Turkey associates the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurds’ de facto army who are allied with the United States, with outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants at home, whom both Washington and Ankara consider a “terrorist” group.
“We understand the very legitimate concerns that Turkey has about the terrorist threat PKK poses” and about “foreign fighters inside Syria,” Miller told reporters.
“So we’re talking to them about those concerns and trying to find a path forward,” he said.
Ultimately “what we want to see is the establishment of a Syrian national government that encompasses all of the various ethnic groups inside Syria,” Miller said.
“And at the end of that, you don’t have any subnational militias — any subnational groups — who are carrying arms under their own banner.”
Syrian Kurds, following the rout of Assad, raised the new Syrian “independence” flag, a move encouraged by the United States — but many Kurds are uneasy about giving up the de facto autonomy that they have enjoyed during the civil war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Turkey last week to discuss Syria with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.