Turkey agrees with US to pause its offensive in Syria for five days

October 18, 2019

Turkey has agreed to pause its offensive in Syria for five days to let Kurdish forces withdraw from a "safe zone" Ankara had sought to capture, in a deal hailed by Washington but which Turkish leaders cast as a complete victory.

The truce was announced on Thursday by US Vice President Mike Pence after talks in Ankara with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and was swiftly hailed by President Donald Trump, who said it would save "millions of lives".

But if implemented it would achieve all the main objectives Turkey announced when it launched the assault eight days ago: control of a strip of Syria more than 30km deep, with the Kurdish YPG militia, formerly close US allies, obliged to pull out.

"The safe zone will be primarily enforced by the Turkish Armed Forces," a joint US-Turkish statement released after the talks said.

A Turkish official told Reuters Ankara got "exactly what we wanted" from the talks with the United States. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described it as a pause, solely to allow the Kurdish fighters to withdraw.

Kurdish fighters would be forced to give up their heavy weapons and their positions would be destroyed, Cavusoglu said. He declined to call the agreement a "ceasefire", saying ceasefires could be agreed only by legitimate sides, and not by the Kurds that Turkey considers terrorists.

Pence said Washington had already been in contact with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which had agreed to withdraw and were already pulling out.