US & Turkish ‘joint effort’ in Syria will ‘promote peace’ – Erdogan

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he is “confident” that the joint actions of Ankara and Washington in Syria, where Turkey plans to create a 30-kilometer deep ‘safe zone’ along its border by removing Kurdish-led militias from the area, “will promote peace and stability” in the region.

Erdogan expressed his optimism in a tweet following a deal with the US, under which Turkey halted its military operation against the Kurdish YPG militia, which it considers a terrorist group. The statement came in response to the US President Donald Trump’s Twitter post, where he thanked Erdogan for his decision.

Yet, the Turkish president still hinted that Ankara is not ready to abandon its plans just yet, as he said that “many more lives will be saved when we defeat terrorism,” apparently referring to the Kurdish armed groups, which the US considered allies for quite some time.