A top Syrian Kurdish official gave a guarded welcome Thursday to a US-Turkish agreement to establish a joint operations center to coordinate and manage a planned safe zone in northeast Syria, saying the details remained unclear.
"This deal may mark the start of a new approach but we still need more details," Aldar Khalil told Agence France Presse.
"We will evaluate the agreement based on details and facts, not headlines."
Turkish and US officials agreed to establish the center to manage tensions between Ankara and US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.
No details were provided of the size or nature of the safe zone and neither side said whether they had overcome two main points that had divided them.
Washington has proposed a two-tier safe zone, with a 5-kilometer demilitarized strip bolstered by an additional 9 km cleared of heavy weapons - stretching in total less than half the distance into Syria that Turkey is seeking.
Turkey has also said it must have ultimate authority over the zone, another point of divergence with the United States.
The Turkish Defense Ministry said it would be giving no further details for now of the agreement.
But the deal appeared to provide some breathing room after Turkey had threatened an imminent attack on the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which controls a large swathe of northern Syria.
The YPG has been a key US ally in the fight against ISIS but Ankara views it as a "terrorist" group.
As the fight against ISIS winds down in northeastern Syria, the prospect of a US military withdrawal has stoked Kurdish fears of a long threatened Turkish attack.
In recent weeks, Turkish media have repeatedly shown images of military convoys heading for the border area, carrying equipment and fighting units.
Khalil said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was "still insisting on eliminating our presence," despite the deal with the US.
A top Syrian Kurdish official told Reuters on Wednesday that any Turkish attack on Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria would spark a "big war".
Turkey already carried out a cross-border offensive against the YPG in 2018, overrunning the majority Kurdish Afrin enclave in the northwest.
