No 'Safe Zone' On Turkish-Syrian Border, US Says

There won't be a safe or a no-fly zone on the Turkish-Syrian border and the US-led coalition is only focused on clearing the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Turkish border to the west of the Euphrates, senior US officials have said.

Senior US State Department officials put an end to a week-long debate over the shape and depth of a possible safe zone on the Turkish-Syrian border ISIL still controls, dismissing reports that the US military has set up such a plan to carve out an "ISIL-free zone."

The reports of a safe zone, a long-sought goal by Ankara, came after nearly a month of negotiations with the Turkish government. Ankara agreed to open up its air bases to coalition aircraft and significantly stepped up its combat role in the fight against ISIL. Despite being a late runner, Turkish officials instead blamed the international community for dragging their feet in solving the crisis in Syria, which Turks say is a contributing factor to the Syrian regime's brutality.

A senior US official told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the US will begin to work with Turkey to clear out the last stretch of the Turkey-Syria border, nearly 98 kilometers, controlled by ISIL. The territory stretches from Jarabulus, a town that sits just west of the Euphrates River to Azaz, a Syrian border town across Kilis in southeast Turkey. The US official said Turkey asked the US for help and that the US wants to work very closely with Turkey to close up this last stretch of border.

Another group of US diplomats will travel to Ankara to discuss the details of the joint military plan and look at ways how they may organize moderate opposition fighters to clean out and control the west bank of the river. The official described an agreement with Turkey on intensifying the fight against ISIL as a "very significant development" in the ongoing campaign against the extremist group.

The official continued, "We're making some pretty decent progress on our way to degrade and ultimately defeat Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ISIL].”

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said last week that a safe zone on the Turkish-Syrian border will be set up "naturally" if ISIL militants are cleared out of that area. The foreign minister's remarks, coupled with several media reports, raised questions if speculations of a safe haven are true.

The US administration official pointed to the east of the Euphrates, which is no longer in the hands of ISIL. The official added that the US is going to work cooperatively with Turkey on driving out ISIL from that last stretch of the border.

"In terms of what exactly it looks like and how it will look and what the modalities are, that's what we have to work out with [Turkey]," the official said, adding, "It will not be a no-fly zone just as Kobani was not a no-fly zone."

The objective there, the official highlighted, is to get ISIL out of that area and to allow people to return to normal life.

On Monday, a US State Department spokesman also dismissed reports that Washington is planning to set up a safe zone in that area. He noted that coalition aircraft can freely fly over that area without being challenged by the Syrian regime or ISIL, but there is no such commitment for a no-fly zone.

Who will run the area?

Alarmed at Kurdish gains in northern Syria, Turkey has publicly vowed not to allow Kurdish statehood across its border. Turkey fears that a growing Kurdish footprint in Syria could risk separatist sentiment among its Kurdish population in the restive Southeast. Just after the fall of Tel Abyad to the Kurds six weeks ago, which allowed Kurds to control a 400-mile-long uninterrupted stretch of territory along the Turkish border, Turkey offered to open up its bases to US aircraft, the US official said.

If the 98-kilometer-long area falls into the hands of the Kurds, Turkey will not have access to moderate Syrian rebels because the entire border will either be controlled by Kurds or Syrian regime forces. On that front, the US and Turkey are now weighing options over control of that territory, which includes the cities of Jarabulus, Manbij, al-Bab and Azaz. Both Turkish and American soldiers won't be on the ground and the prevailing idea is to coordinate with moderate Syrian opposition fighters for control of the territory. Finding them, however, is another daunting task.

The US official said, "We're going to work that out," in terms of which opposition forces would take part. That plan will be mutually agreed on with Turkey. "We learned an awful lot over the last 10 months. And so we think we have some ideas of how to do this. We have to sit down with the Turks and figure it out. But in terms of who the groups will be, they'll be mutually agreed between us and Turkey," the official said.

The Pentagon's $500 million train-and-equip program for vetted Syrian opposition fighters was very slow due to complications in the vetting process and other hindrances. The Pentagon said only 60 Syrian rebels could be trained so far and sent to Syria.

The liberation of the west bank of the Euphrates will also be a significant boon to Syrian rebels fighting against regime forces in Syria's largest city, Aleppo. The rebels were waging a two-front war for months, which complicated their chance to take over the city.

Turkey going after ISIL in Syria, not Kurds

Turkey's increased military action against ISIL is also coupled with parallel attacks on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) camps in northern Iraq. The White House and other administration officials threw their weight behind Turkey for responding to the PKK violence in "self-defense."

On Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the peace process that had kept the country in relative peace is impossible to undertake amid attacks, calling for a lift of the immunity of pro-Kurdish lawmakers.

The US official said the PKK attack that killed members of Turkey's security services was "the triggering event" for the Turkish airstrikes in northern Iraq. "The PKK situation had nothing to do with our discussions with Turkey regarding the fight against Daesh," the official said.

Another senior US official noted that Washington calls on the PKK not to continue these attacks, which are provoking Turkish retaliation, and urged the Turks "to be judicious" in their anti-PKK operations.

The second US official said Turkish officials have been clear that their military action is directed solely at ISIL inside Syria and against PKK encampments in response to PKK attacks in Turkey.

Kirby also made similar remarks on Monday, saying that Turkey reiterated and clarified that it is going only after ISIL in Syria, and not Syrian Kurds.

United Nations warns Turkey against calling buffer a 'safe zone'

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) United Nations aid chief Stephen O'Brien warned Turkey on Tuesday against calling its planned buffer in northern Syria "a safe zone" unless there is a guarantee of protection for civilians who are likely to flood the area for help.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said earlier that a "secure zone" would pave the way for the return of 1.7 million Syria refugees currently sheltering in Turkey after fleeing their country's four-year civil war.

"What you don't want to do is call something a safe zone, people flee to it, but it hasn't got sufficient protection," O'Brien told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria.

"As our primary objective is the protection of civilians we need to make sure there is protection in place and that is not always the role of the humanitarians, it needs to be established by others," he said.

Mahir Zeynalov, Washington (Cihan/Today's Zaman)