RPT - US Betrayal Will Eventually Force Kurds To Deal With Damascus - Former UK Envoy To Syria

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th October, 2019) The United States' latest betrayal of its Kurdish allies in Syria will force them to seek peace and cooperation with the Damascus government of President Bashar Assad, former United Kingdom (UK) Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford told Sputnik.

"Only when the Kurds realize that they are in for a second betrayal will they come to their senses and sue for reconciliation with Damascus," Ford said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced earlier this week the launch of the offensive, dubbed Operation Peace Spring, in northeastern Syria, aiming to create a safe zone following the unilateral withdrawal of US troops in the area.

Ford said the Turkish response was the inevitable result of years of US policies encouraging Kurdish separatism in the region.

"This situation would never have arisen if the United States had withdrawn from Syria once ISIS [Islamic State terror group, outlawed in Russia] was defeated. Far from promoting stability the US presence caused massive instability because it encouraged Kurdish separatism which ended up spooking the Turks," he said.

Ford noted that the Turkish military advances in the past few days were significant setbacks for the Kurdish separatists, but that their significance should not be exaggerated.

"The loss of major towns in the North will deal a heavy but not fatal blow to that separatism, at least for as long as the US withdrawal is so minor (50 soldiers in a 20 mile pullback)," he said.

However, over the long term, a region that had previously been quiet though unsettled would see a serious escalation in violent clashes between the Turkish military and their Kurdish opponents, Ford warned.

"A border which was quiet will now become a flash point as the Kurds mount attacks on the Turkish occupying forces from behind the new seam line; still counting on US protection," he said.

President Donald Trump had not moved decisively enough to reduce the real US military presence in the region, Ford cautioned.

"Trump will find that the trip wire from which he thought he was disentangling the United Sates has simply moved 20 miles south," he said.

Trump had yielded to Deep State pressure in keeping the withdrawal on such a small scale yet the extreme criticism he had received ensured that he would be too intimidated to attempt any more bold actions to reduce the US presence, Ford said.

"The virulence of the Washington establishment push-back against the minor redeployment guarantees that the United States will go on compounding its errors. Trump will be too cowed to order a full withdrawal and the new halfway house will be worse than the old situation," he said.

However, the Syrian government would take care not to be drawn into any clashes of its own with Turkey, Ford advised.

"Syria will not be stupid enough to retaliate militarily against Turkey. The impact on any eventual resolution of the conflict will be minimal. Syria will not throw a tantrum and walk away just because reality is catching up with the willful Kurds," Ford said.

Turkey considers US-backed Kurdish soldiers as an extension of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which it considers a terrorist organization. Kurdish guerrilla campaigns within Turkey have led to the deaths of at least 52,000 people, both Turks and Kurds, since 1984.