The US and Turkey have reached an agreement on the issue of the stabilization of the city of Manbij in northern Syria and other cities east of the Euphrates River.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that the Turkish and Syrian armies will continue their advancement after Afrin towards Manbij, Kobani and Qamishli.
“We have established working groups for that,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit on Friday.
The Turkish foreign minister said he would meet with his US counterpart Rex Tillerson on March 19 to discuss further details.
“We hope the US stops giving support to terror organizations” he said, referring to the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
“These militants have control of 35 percent of Syria, but the majority of the people that live in the cities are Arabs, Cavusoglu said, accusing them of displacing 350,000 Syrian Kurds to Turkey.
The first meeting of the technical committee between Turkey and the United States, which was held on various issues, including the situation in Syria and Iraq, was concluded in Washington on Friday.
Turkish diplomatic sources said that the issue of combating terrorism topped the agenda of the delegations of the two countries in the first meeting, as well as the Syrian file, pointing out that the foreign ministers of the two countries will meet next week in Washington.
The US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Thursday that talks between Turkish and American officials have begun in the US capital and many issues will be discussed including Syria and Turkey’s ongoing operation in Afrin.
“Today is the first day that the US government and Turkish officials are meeting to discuss what was agreed to when Tillerson met with his counterpart in Istanbul a couple of weeks ago,” Nauert told reporters at a daily press briefing, referring to the first of the three technical committees of Turkey and the US, formed to solve issues between the two countries.
Regarding the military Operation Olive Branch, which is carried out by the Turkish and Free Syrian armies in Afrin, northern Syria, Cavusoglu said that its goal is to eliminate threats against his country, pointing to the launch of about 700 rockets from Afrin to Turkish territories.
In this context, Erdogan stressed that forces participating in the military operation will head towards Manbij and several other cities to liberate them.
