Joint Turkish-US Efforts To Boost Regional Peace, Stability - Erdogan

Joint Turkish-US Efforts to Boost Regional Peace, Stability - Erdogan

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2019) Joint US-Turkish efforts will strengthen regional peace and stability, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in the wake of a bilateral agreement on a suspension of Ankara's military operation in northern Syria.

The deal was announced by US Vice President Mike Pence after hours of talks with Erdogan in Ankara. Pence said the sides had reached an agreement to implement a 120-hour ceasefire in northeast Syria to allow the withdrawal of the Kurdish People's Protection Units' (YPG) forces. Under the deal, all military activities under Turkey's Operation Peace Spring, aimed at clearing the Turkish-Syrian border area from Kurdish-led militia and the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia), will be paused and the operation will be halted entirely on completion of the withdrawal.

"Mr. President, many more lives will be saved when we defeat terrorism, which is humanity's arch enemy.

I am confident that this joint effort will promote peace and stability in our region," Erdogan wrote on Twitter late on Thursday.

Notably, Erdogan's tweet followed a letter that Trump wrote to the Turkish president as soon as Operation Peace Spring began. In an unexpected move, Trump told Erdogan not to be a "fool" and a "tough guy" in the letter that was circulated by US media outlets.

Operation Peace Spring began on October 9 and was met with criticism from the United States, the European Union and many Arab countries, among other states. Damascus has deemed it a violation of Syria's territorial integrity, while Russia, which supports Syria in its fight against terrorism, has emphasized that any escalation of the Syrian conflict should be avoided.

The United States has introduced sanctions against Turkey over the operation. Pence said the restrictions would be removed once a permanent ceasefire in northern Syria was in place.