Since 2015, the U.S. Central Command has worked with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to fight the Islamic State (ISIS).

However, Turkey regards the SDF as a terrorist group due to its affiliation with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party and some in the U.S. State Department have always preferred other Syrian rebel groups and sought to work through Ankara to support more extreme Islamist groups that Turkey favors, Frantzman said.

According to Ahval news the Syrian Rojava Information Center news agency said on Aug. 22 that “all representatives of North and East Syria, a region covering one third of the country and which partnered with the international community to defeat ISIS, are once again excluded from the next round of official negotiations on Syria”.

“The result of the U.S. side-lining the SDF from any political role in Geneva was that it created a strange self-fulfilling prophecy whereby the SDF was forced to work with the Syrian regime and Russia in areas the U.S. had abandoned – and then US officials would point to this work with Damascus and Moscow as evidence of why it should only work with Turkish-backed groups,” Frantzman said.

“But the regime in Damascus has rejected an agreement with the SDF and would only incorporate them on its terms.”

He said that, as Ankara’s interests seem to come before the U.S. role in Syria, it has left “confusion, instability and a lack of faith in Washington’s commitment”.

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