Turkey offers U.S. joint Syria operation without Kurds

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey is offering to "join forces" with Washington for a special operation inside Syria on condition it doesn't include a Syrian Kurdish militia blacklisted by Ankara but seen as an ally by the U.S., the Foreign Minister said, according to AFP.

"If we join forces, they (the U.S.) have their own special forces and we have our special forces," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a small group of journalists.

"The subject we are discussing with the Americans is the closure of the Manbij pocket as soon as possible... and the opening of a second front," he said, referring to a backdoor border route favoured by IS for smuggling jihadists into and out of Syria.

"We say okay, a second front should be opened but not with the PYD," he said, referring to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the YPG's political wing, AFP says.

Cavusoglu said Syrian Arab opposition forces opposing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad could be backed up with special forces from Turkey and NATO ally Washington as well as from France, Britain and Germany.

Such a "second front" could "easily" head to the Islamic State's self-declared capital in Raqa to the south.

"Unfortunately, both Russia and the United States see a terrorist organization as a partner and support it," he said of the YPG, according to AFP.

The minister also said that recent deal with Washington, which would have seen American light multiple rocket launchers deployed along its border with Syria to combat Islamic State, had been delayed.