Conflicting Turkish, US Statements about Turkey’s Agreement on Truce with Kurdish Fighters in Northern Syria

WASHINGTON, (ST)- US Central Command spokesman, Colonel John Thomas, has announced that Turkish forces and Kurdish fighters in northern Syria have reached a “loose agreement” to stop fighting each other, according to AFP.

 “We have received assurance that all parties involved are going to stop shooting at each other and focus on the ISIL threat,” the US military official told the French agency, adding that “it is a loose agreement for at least the next couple of days.

On the other hand, Turkey has denied that a truce has been reached between its army and Kurdish forces in Jarablus.

The Turkish military has not agreed to a ceasefire with Kurdish forces in northern Syria, Reuters reported.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has stressed that  the massacres and aggressive acts committed by the Turkish regime during its invasion of Syrian territories are a crime of aggression and an evident crime against humanity. The ministry has also stressed that fighting terrorism on the Syrian lands by whatever party should have been done in coordination with the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Army, urging the Security Council to pressure the Turkish regime to withdraw its forces from the Syrian territories.

Hamda Mustafa