On Tuesday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Russia had informed Turkey that the Syrian Kurdish YPG had left a planned "safe zone" within a deadline set by Ankara and Moscow. Under their agreement, Russia and Turkey were then due to start joint patrols.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"Inter-delegation talks with Russia were concluded a short while ago. An agreement was largely reached. Our efforts continue in a mutually constructive, understanding way," Akar was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.

On Tuesday, Iran and Russia condemned US President Donald Trump's decision to maintain a military presence near oil fields in northeastern Syria, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying any exploitation of resources would be illegal.

Trump's suggestion on Sunday that Exxon Mobil Corp or another US oil company operate Syrian oil fields drew rebukes from legal and energy experts.

The United States will strengthen its military presence in Syria with "mechanized forces" to prevent Islamic State fighters seizing oil fields and revenue, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif addressed the issue at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday evening after meeting with his counterparts, Russia's Lavrov and Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu.

"Well it seems that the United States is staying to protect the oil. And at least President Trump is honest to say what the United States intends to do," Zarif said to laughter.

Lavrov said that the return of US forces to Syria, after their transfer to Iraq, was "under the pretext of protecting oil deposits from the Islamic State," but that in essence the exploitation of a state's natural resources without its consent was illegal.

The post Turks, Russians agree to start joint patrols in safe zone this Friday appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Hours after the deal was announced, the Turkish defense ministry said that the United States had told Turkey the withdrawal of Kurdish militants was complete from the "safe zone" Ankara demands in northern Syria.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

There was no need to initiate another operation outside the current area of operation at this stage, the ministry said in a statement, effectively ending its military offensive that had begun on Oct. 9, drawing widespread criticism.

The agreement follows a US-brokered truce which expired on Tuesday and underlines the dizzying changes in Syria since US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of American troops two weeks ago ahead of Turkey's cross-border offensive against the Kurds.

The Russia-Turkey agreement struck in the Black Sea resort of Sochi endorses the return of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces to the border alongside Russian troops, replacing the Americans who had patrolled the region for years with their former Kurdish allies.

Video: Reuters

Under the pact between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the two countries said Russian military police and Syrian border guards would start removing the YPG 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border on Wednesday.

Six days later, Russian and Turkish forces will jointly start to patrol a narrower, 10 km (6 miles) strip of land in the "safe zone" that Ankara has long sought in northeast Syria.

US Vice President Mike Pence voiced support for the establishment of the safe zone.

"We may well give the international community an opportunity to establish a safe zone between Turkey and the Kurdish population in Syria that will ensure peace and security," Pence told a Heritage Foundation gala in Washington.

Earlier on Tuesday, Jim Jeffrey, the senior US diplomat on Syria, dismissed the Sochi deal and questioned whether the Russians could get the YPG to leave the territory it covers.

"It's full of holes," he told a congressional hearing. "All I know it will stop the Turks from moving forward. Whether the Russians will ever live up to their commitment, which is very vague, to ... get the YPG out of their areas, I don't know."

After six hours of talks with Erdoğan in Sochi, Putin expressed satisfaction at decisions he described as "very important, if not momentous, to resolve what is a pretty tense situation which has developed on the Syrian-Turkish border."

A senior Turkish official described it as an "excellent" deal which would achieve Turkey's long-held goal of a border strip cleared of the YPG, which Ankara regards as a terrorist organization because of its links to insurgents inside Turkey.

Last week's US-brokered deal was limited to the central part of the border strip between the Syrian towns of Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ain, where Turkish forces had focused their military offensive.

Under the deal with Moscow, the length of border which the YPG would be required to pull back from is more than triple the size of the territory covered by the US-Turkish accord, covering most of the area Turkey had wanted to include.

"The outcome of the Putin-Erdoğan meeting in Sochi today indicates that Erdoğan has become a master of leveraging the US and Russia against each other to maximize Ankara's gains," Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish program at the Washington Institute said in a tweet.

"Turkey got the safe zone it wanted all this time."

Some 300,000 people have been displaced by Turkey's offensive and 120 civilians have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor. It said on Sunday 259 fighters with the Kurdish-led forces had been killed, and 196 Turkey-backed Syrian rebels. Turkey says 765 terrorists but no civilians have been killed in its offensive.

Pence received a letter from Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazloum Kobani on Tuesday saying their forces had withdrawn "from the relevant area of operations" under that deal, Pence's spokeswoman Katie Waldman said.

However, before flying to Russia Erdoğan had said hundreds of Kurdish fighters remained near to Syria's northeast border despite the truce demanding their withdrawal. Earlier he had said the fighting might resume if promises by Washington were not kept.

The US withdrawal from northern Syria has been criticized by US lawmakers, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, as a betrayal of Kurdish allies who have helped the United States fight Islamic State in Syria.

Turkey sought a "safe zone" along 440 km (270 miles) of border with northeast Syria, but its assault focused on the two border towns in the center of that strip, Ras al-Ain and Tel Abyad.

Syrian and Russian forces have already entered two border cities, Manbij and Kobani, which lie within Turkey's planned "safe zone" but to the west of Turkey's military operations.

Erdoğan has said he could accept the presence of Syrian troops in those areas, as long as the YPG are pushed out.

Russia is an ally of Assad. Turkey has backed rebels seeking to oust Assad during Syria's more than eight-year-long civil war but has dropped its once frequent calls for him to quit.

The post Russia, Turkey reach deal to remove Kurdish YPG from Syria border appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Redur Khalil, a senior Syrian Democratic Forces official, said the plan for evacuation from the town of Ras al-Ayn is set for the following day if there are no delays.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

He said only after that will his force pull back from a 120-kilometer (75-mile) area between the towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad. It will withdraw and move back from the border 30 kilometers (19 miles).

However, one Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded on Sunday after an attack by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in Tal Abyad, despite the deal to pause military operations and withdraw from the area.

In a statement, the Turkish defense ministry said an attack by the YPG with anti-tank and light weapons had struck Turkish soldiers carrying out a reconnaissance and surveillance mission in Tal Abyad. It said the attack was retaliated and added that Turkey remained committed to the truce deal despite the violations.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, meanwhile, said on Saturday that all of the nearly 1,000 troops withdrawing from northern Syria are expected to move to western Iraq to continue the campaign against Islamic State fighters and "to help defend Iraq."

On Thursday, Turkey agreed in talks with US Vice President Mike Pence to a five-day pause in an offensive into northeastern Syria to allow time for the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from the "safe zone" Ankara aims to establish near the Turkish border with Syria.

"The US withdrawal continues apace from northeastern Syria ... we're talking weeks not days," Esper told reporters en route to the Middle East, adding that it was being carried out through aircraft and ground convoys.

"The current game plan is for those forces to re-position into western Iraq," Esper said, adding that they would number about one thousand.

He said the mission for those troops would be to "help defend Iraq" and carry out a counter-Islamic State mission. A senior US defense official clarified that the situation was still fluid and plans could change.

Any decision to send additional US troops to Iraq is likely to be heavily scrutinized in a country where Iran has been steadily amassing influence.

"That is the current game plan, things can change between now and whenever we complete the withdrawal but that is the game plan right now," the senior official added.

It is unclear whether the US troops will use Iraq as a base to launch ground raids into Syria and carry out airstrikes against Islamic State fighters.

The additional US troops would add to the more than 5,000 American troops already based in the country, training Iraqi forces and helping to ensure that Islamic State militants do not resurge.

While Esper said he had spoken with his Iraqi counterpart and will continue to have conversations in the future, the move will likely be viewed with skepticism by some in Iraq.

Iraq is in the midst of a political crisis, as mass protests have led to more than 100 deaths and 6,000 injuries during the week starting Oct. 1.

Iran's role in responding to the demonstrations has been another reminder of Tehran's reach in Iraq, where a sizable number of former militia commanders are now members of parliament and support the Iranian agenda.

Esper said that the ceasefire in northeastern Syria was generally holding.

"I think overall the ceasefire generally seems to be holding, we see a stabilization of the lines, if you will, on the ground, and we do get reports of intermittent fires, this and that, that doesn't surprise me necessarily," he added.

There has been concern that the Turkish incursion into northeastern Syria would allow Islamic State fighters to make gains and see them escaping prisons guarded by Kurdish fighters.

Esper said that the United States was still in contact with the Kurdish fighters, known as the YPG, and they appeared to continue to defend the prisons in areas they still controlled.

The post Syria: Kurds withdraw from Turkish border as US relocates troops to Iraq appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Turkey pounded Kurdish militia in northeast Syria for a second day on Thursday, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee, killing dozens and drawing international condemnation.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Those militias have been holding thousands of Islamic State militants in prisons and tens of thousands of their relatives in camps in the region. One senior Kurdish official warned the fighters could break out as the violence intensifies.

"If Daesh [Islamic State] camps or prisons are in the safe zone, we are responsible," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told a rare briefing with international media.

Turkey would ask the home countries of foreign Islamic State prisoners in its zone to take them back. If the foreign countries refuse – as many have – "it is our responsibility that they [the Islamic State prisoners] are held accountable and not released," he said.

Turkey would not be responsible for Islamic State prisoners held in other parts of Syria, he added.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan defended Turkey's operation in a fiery speech on Thursday, dismissing global criticism and threatening to send more than three million Syrian refugees into Europe.

He also reiterated a plan to settle millions of Syrian refugees in the "safe zone" in northeastern Syria, saying Turkey aimed to realize this with international funding.

The EU has said it will not provide any financial aid to Turkey for the plans. But Çavuşoğlu said that if the bloc refuses to provide assistance, refugees will "be their problem too."

"This is not blackmail or anything," Çavuşoğlu said. "This is the common challenge that our societies have been facing."

The post Turkey promises it won't let ISIS prisoners in 'safe zone' escape appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

To forestall violence between its two allies along the border it has helped clear of ISIS terrorists, Washington has upped its involvement in this part of Syria.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The armored vehicles patrolled border areas, zigzagging for miles between golden fields and mud and brick houses, escorted by their Syrian allies. US troops inspected Kurdish-controlled bases to ensure trenches and sand berms, considered a threat by Turkey, have been removed. Then a drone, operated by US troops, filmed the area.

It is part of an agreement that has set up a joint operation room with Turkey to take measures to ease tensions. But details of the deal are still being worked out in separate talks with Ankara and the Kurdish-led forces in Syria known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. Views are widely divergent on the purpose of these measures, but Washington seems to be buying time to avoid a crisis along the border while its troops are still deployed in Syria.

Associated Press journalists accompanied the coalition and the SDF on a daytime excursion in northeastern Syria that offered a rare glimpse into the intricate mechanics involved in diffusing tensions in the flashpoint region and setting up the so-called safe zone.

"We have no problem with the security mechanism to secure our areas," said Kurdish commander Khalil Khalfo, the head of the newly established Military Council of Tal Abyad, which is under civil administration. He has 500 fighters in his group, mostly from the Syrian Democratic Forces and its core People's Protection Units, or YPG, which he is expected to replace. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group because of its links to Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey.

"We want to live in peace and if this is scaring Turkey, we will close it," Khalfo said, pointing to the berm that surrounds his base. Two bulldozers were moving earth to close the trench around it and flatten the sand there. US troops filmed the base after the berms were flattened.

He said they had to return to this base Friday after Turkey complained that the berms, less than a mile from the border, were a threat.

In the initial phase, Kurdish-led forces have organized withdrawals from bases along some 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the border. Khalfo's team replaced them in bases along the border in Tal Abyad over a 75-kilometer (47-mile) stretch. Another sector, Ras al-Ayn, is undergoing a similar handover.

The Kurdish-led forces have also withdrawn heavy weapons – vehicles mounted with machine guns and mortar launchers – from the borders.

US and Turkish helicopters have flown reconnaissance flights along the borders, while joint Turkish-US patrols are planned to start on Sunday.

Khalfo is looking to recruit as many soldiers as he can. Officials say those new recruits will be trained by the coalition to ensure there is no security vacuum during the implementation of the new arrangements.

Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said the plan in coordination with the SDF and Turkey, "maintains security in northeast Syria to counter the re-emergence of ISIS and allows the coalition and our partners to remain focused" on that goal.

Turkey refers to the area as a "safe-zone" and wants no presence for Syrian Kurdish fighters along the 50-mile stretch. It says Turkish soldiers should be in charge of the safe zone, which it advises should be at least 30 kilometers (19 miles) deep, in some cases more. That would mean taking up most of the Kurdish-majority urban centers as well as border areas.

Turkey is hoping that some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees it is hosting will return to the area.

Washington and the Kurdish-led forces say a "security mechanism" is taking shape.

The Kurdish-led forces say they won't accept Turkish bases in territories they control – already a de facto no-fly zone because of the presence of US-led coalition forces. They say they would only accept Ankara's inspection of the area so long as the coalition is involved. They have agreed with the Americans that the area should be between four and 15 kilometers (two-9 miles) deep and say they are already negotiating the return of a number of Syrians native to the area.

"When it comes to politics, we don't know what goes on. In the morning it is something and in the evening it is another," said Khalfo, who once commanded a battalion in the fight against ISIS in his town and other areas. He shyly put the yellow badge of his new military council on his left shirt pocket. A flag with the new council's name was hoisted on his pick-up car.

One of Khalfo's fighters said the removal of fortifications won't stop the tensions but would only leave the force exposed.

A few miles from the base, the armored vehicles and the SDF coordinator stopped to check a deep trench on the left side of the road. Coordinates shared by Turkey with US troops identified the depression as a possible threat, the SDF commander said. On close inspection, it was clear the trench was more like a bunker, prepared for civilians to take cover in case of an attack.

The convoy moved on. An SDF official was on-site, coordinating with US troops and the new commander.

Robertson, the Pentagon spokesman, said the coordination on the ground demonstrates a "good-faith" effort by the SDF to implement the security mechanism.

While officials say no civilians would be displaced by the new security arrangements, residents are bracing for a new round of instability.

Down the road, farmers in al-Tawila village were watching a volleyball match between two local teams around sunset on Friday. Two Arab men, Hussein and Abdullah, sat with their backs to the wall cheering for the winning team, ignoring the passing US convoy and concerns over possible violence.

Over the last eight years, different groups took control of their area; starting with rebels, ISIS and lastly the Kurdish-led administration. The two men, who spoke without giving their last names for security reasons, said they have not left their homes despite the change of hands and have no plans to leave despite the threats.

Both said Turkey let foreign ISIS fighters into Syria through its porous border but built a wall along most of the shared frontier when the Kurdish-led forces took over, accusing Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of having plans to seize Syrian land. "Now he's fighting terrorism?" scoffed Abdullah.

Hussein said he can't access his farm near the border at night for fear that he would come under fire from Turkish troops.

Although both agreed the Kurdish-led administration brought security, they say only the return of the Syrian government would bring about stability and prevent violence.

"For now, we will sit tight and be shaped like mud by whoever comes here," said Hussein.

The post To set up 'safe zone,' US wades into muddled Syria politics appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.