Turkey To End Operation In Syria After Pullout Of Kurdish Militia - Cavusoglu

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2019) Turkey will halt military operation in Syria after the withdrawal of Syrian Kurdish forces from the security buffer zone, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held negotiations with US Vice President Mike Pence in Ankara that lasted more than 4 hours. The parties agreed to suspend the Turkish operation in Syria for 120 hours to�facilitate the withdrawal of the Syrian Kurds' militia to a distance of about 30 kilometers (some 20 miles) from the border with Turkey.

"We will take a pause for five days. This is not a truce, and not a ceasefire, this is just a pause. A ceasefire is achieved between two warring countries. And here we simply give the opportunity to the Syrian Kurdish self-defense forces to retreat outside the 32-kilometer security zone. After they leave, we'll talk about the complete cessation of military actions. We will continue to fight against the Islamic State [IS, terrorist group banned in Russia]," Cavusoglu said.