[ARA News] Erbil – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Thursday called on Turkey to stop its attacks on Syrian Kurds, while planning by the US-led coalition to take Raqqa from ISIS continues.“The United States has a longstanding relationship with Turkey, but a series of recent events have raised concerns about the fundamentals of our relations. I have long argued that the Obama administration’s feckless approach to Syria has contributed to a strategic disaster on Turkey’s doorstep,” McCain said.
“At the same time, the Turkish government’s continued attacks on Syrian Kurds are destabilizing and troubling,” he said.
“These Kurdish fighters have shown themselves to be willing and capable partners in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria, and our continued cooperation serves the national security interests of both the United States and countries in the region, including Turkey,” the US senator said.
“I urge the Turkish government to refrain from further attacks against Kurdish groups in Syria,” McCain stated.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 26 October said that they would attack the Kurds in Manbij. “We will do whatever necessary if they do not return back across the other side of the Euphrates River,” Erdoğan said.
Kurdish officials said that recent attacks by Turkey and its local allies are aimed to disrupt the Raqqa operation.
Moreover, Turkey told US officials to keep the People’s Protection Units (YPG) out of Raqqa, although the US said that the YPG is one of the most effective forces against ISIS and its fighters are needed for the Raqqa operation.
“The only force that is capable on any near frame — near-term timeline is — are the Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the YPG are a significant portion,” Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, commander, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve said on Thursday.
“So, we’re negotiating, we’re planning, we’re having talks with Turkey and we’re gonna take this in steps. And we think there’s an imperative to get isolation in place around Raqqa because our intelligence feeds tell us that there is significant external operations attacks planning going on, emanating centralized in Raqqa,” Townsend said.
“We think it’s very important to get isolation in place around Raqqa to start controlling that environment on a pretty short timeline. So, we’re gonna take the force that we have and we will go to Raqqa soon with that force,” he said.
“The Syrian Democratic Forces, to include the Kurdish YPG and the Syrian Arab Corps, will all be part of that force to go and place isolation at Raqqa.”