Ankara ‘won’t allow’ Syria safe-zone agreement to be delayed – FM Cavusoglu

Turkey will not allow efforts to establish a safe zone with the US in northeast Syria to stall in the same way that their agreement on control of the Syrian town of Manbij has been delayed, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned on Thursday.

The Manbij roadmap was an agreement made between the NATO allies last year for the withdrawal of the Kurdish YPG militia from the town. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization.

“We will not allow these efforts [on the safe zone] to turn into the Manbij roadmap,” Cavusoglu said in Ankara. He added he and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had drawn up the roadmap in June last year, and that it was supposed to be executed within 90 days. “But the US delayed this with many excuses, such as joint patrols,” Reuters quoted Cavusoglu  as saying.

Damascus said on Thursday that an agreement between Turkey and the US over northeastern Syria was a “blatant attack” on the country’s sovereignty and territorial unity.