Pompeo 'optimistic' about Turkey- Kurdish groups deal

FE Team | Published: January 14, 2019 00:33:37

ABU DHABI, Jan 13 (Al Jazeera): Washington's top diplomat said he was "optimistic" an agreement with Ankara could be reached which will protect Syrian Kurdish groups while allowing Ankara to "defend their country from terrorists" following a United States pullout from Syria.
"We are confident we can achieve an outcome that achieves both of those," United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told journalists on Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
The Gulf emirate is his latest stop in a regional tour aimed at reassuring allies after a shock December announcement by President Donald Trump that US troops would be withdrawn from Syria.
Pompeo's remarks follow tensions between the US and Turkey over the fate of Washington's Syrian Kurdish allies in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters.
Turkey had reacted angrily to suggestions that Trump's plan to withdraw troops was conditional on the safety of the US-backed Kurdish fighters, seen by the Turkish government as terrorists.
US-led operations against ISIL in Syria have been spearheaded on the ground by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Ankara sees the backbone of that alliance, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), as a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) which has fought a decades-long campaign against the Turkish state.
Pompeo said that Washington recognised "the Turkish people's right and (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan's right to defend their country from terrorists".