The Pentagon statement follows after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan twice over the past week, threatened the SDF with a cross-border attack, amid increasing artillery attacks on territory it controls.
“We expect Turkey to adhere to the October 2019 Joint U.S.-Turkish Statement negotiated by Vice President Pence and President Erdogan, in which Turkey committed to ceasing active offensive military operations in northeast Syria,” Pentagon Spokesperson Commander Jessica L. McNulty told Kurdistan 24.
McNulty also emphasized the negative effect that any such cross-border assault would have on the US-led Coalition’s fight against ISIS, as the SDF has been the Coalition’s main partner in the military campaign against the terrorist organization.
“In addition to violating the Joint Statement, a new offensive would jeopardize gains made in the Defeat-ISIS campaign,” McNulty added, “and lead to increased instability and bloodshed in a region that has already experienced too much of both.”
Last Friday, the SDF’s media center issued a statement explaining that artillery and mortar shelling from Turkey and its affiliated groups had increased, and the intensified shelling had begun three days before.
Then the following day, on Saturday, Erdogan threatened the SDF. “Recently, we have seen that the efforts for a new terrorist formation near the Iraqi border in Syria have been accelerated,” Erdogan said, as he spoke to a provincial congress of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri.
Then four days later, on Wednesday, Erdogan issued a similar threat, as he delivered an angry address to the AKP’s parliamentary group.
“We see that the terrorist organization’s presence and the threats against our country continue to increase in areas not under our control across our Syrian border, despite all the promises given to us,” Erdogan said.
“Unless the promises given to us are delivered, and all the terrorists there are driven out of the line we have determined, I would like to reiterate that we have legitimate cause to take action whenever we deem necessary,” he continued, as he warned, “Turkey has sufficient power to clear, if need be, all terrorist organizations from Syria.”
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