Erdogan Threatens To Continue Operation In Syria If US Fails To Observe Its Commitments

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published October 20, 2019 | 10:10 PM

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2019) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday vowed to continue Turkey's military operation in north Syria upon expiry of the 120-hour ceasefire, brokered within a Turkish-US deal, if the United States fails to observe its commitments in terms of ensuring the withdrawal of the Kurdish troops, which Ankara designates as terrorists, from the agreed area.

On Thursday, the US and Turkey announced concluding a deal on halting the Turkish operation, dubbed Peace Spring, for 120 hours for the Kurdish forces to leave the area within an 18-mile so-called safe zone, which Ankara intends to control unilaterally. Despite the deal, both Ankara and the Kurds have reported violation of the truce by the rival side.

"If the withdrawal of terrorists is not completed, we will continue the operation once the 120 hours expire. Over the past nine days, we have destroyed a total of 765 terrorists and cleared 500 square kilometers [19 square miles] from the tyranny of the terrorist organization.

We have reached an agreement not with the terrorist organization but with the US, and we will seize control over the safe zone," Erdogan said in a broadcast streamed by the NTV channel.

Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria began on October 9. The offensive is part of Ankara's goal to clear its Syria-facing border area of Islamic State terrorist organization (banned in Russia) and Kurdish militia and create a safe zone where Turkey could relocate part of more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees it currently hosts.

The international community has been vocally critical about Ankara's operation, with a number of countries � including Turkey's and Russia's co-guarantor of the Syrian ceasefire, Iran, � calling upon Erdogan to immediately stop the military action and withdraw troops from Syria. Moscow, in turn, has urged Ankara to refrain from actions that could create obstacles to settling the civil war in Syria.