US Cautions Turkey, Others To Be Careful Of Deals Brokered By Russia - Senior Official

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th October, 2019) The United States cautions Turkey and other allies or partners to be careful of any deals brokered by Russia, a senior US administration official said during a conference call on Wednesday.

"To the extent that the Turks are making other deals with the Russians, we caution our friends in Turkey and all others to be careful about whatever those deals are," the official said.

On Tuesday night, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed that Russian military police and Syrian border guards will facilitate the withdrawal of Kurdish militia from an 18-mile safe zone on the Syria-Turkey border within 150 hours.

The deal occurred at the end of the five-day ceasefire agreed to by the United States and Turkey last week to give the Kurdish militia time to pull back their troops from the area near the Turkish border.

Earlier on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said that Turkey informed his administration the ceasefire in Syria would be permanent.

The diplomatic activity came after Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria on October 9 to clear the border area of Kurdish fighters and the remaining members of the Islamic State terror group (outlawed in Russia).