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posted by janrinok on Sunday November 26 2017, @10:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the backstabbing-on-the-syrian-front dept.

US to stop arming anti-IS Syrian Kurdish YPG militia - Turkey

The US is to stop supplying arms to the Syrian Kurdish militia the YPG, Turkey has said. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said President Donald Trump had made the promise in a phone call to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The White House said it was making "adjustments" to its support for partners inside Syria but did not explicitly name the YPG.

Turkey has long complained about US support for the group. Washington has viewed the YPG as a key player in the fight against so-called Islamic State (IS), but Ankara brands the group's fighters as terrorists. Turkey says the YPG is as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group it has been fighting for decades in south-eastern Turkey. The US, however, has seen the YPG as distinct from the PKK. In May it announced it would supply arms to the Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which were poised to drive IS from its stronghold of Raqqa. It had previously armed only Arab elements of the SDF.

Goodbye, Kurdistan?

Also at Reuters, NPR, Daily Sabah, and RT.


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Sunday November 26 2017, @12:06PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday November 26 2017, @12:06PM (#601698) Journal

    http://www.arabnews.com/node/1199131/middle-east [arabnews.com]

    After Iraqi Kurds voted to be independent from Iraq in September, Baghdad launched a military offensive and reclaimed up to 14,000 square miles of land — including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk — which had been under Kurdish control since 2014, when Daesh swept through the region.

    In the face of “a mountain of debt” compounded by the loss of some $350 million in monthly oil revenues since Baghdad retook Kirkuk, the Kurdish government will run out of funds entirely by early 2018, warned Shwan Zulal, a fellow at the European Center for Energy and Resource Security at King’s College.

    “When you look at the figures, you know that Kurdistan is going to have a very long winter,” warned Zulal during a panel discussion hosted by the Center for Kurdish Progress last week.

    “Probably by February, there will be absolutely no money to pay anything, even the day-to-day running of government unless something changes: Unless Irbil and Baghdad start serious discussions and some cash comes from Baghdad,” he said.

    Iraqi Kurds, hundreds of thousands of whom work in the public sector, have seen salaries slashed, delayed and unpaid as government coffers dry up. Putting food on the table, Zulal added, may become an exigent concern for Kurdish families in the months to come unless progress is made to break the political deadlock between Irbil and Baghdad.

    While Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi will not allow the wholesale collapse of Kurdistan, he will “make sure that the region has zero bargaining chips moving forward,” said Renad Mansour, a research fellow at Chatham House, who also spoke on the panel.
    But following the referendum — which Mansour called a political “miscalculation,” — the Kurds have found themselves effectively friendless in their face-off against Abadi.

    Having rebuffed threats from Baghdad and pressure from friendly Western governments who cautioned against holding the referendum, the Kurds are now “alienated from the international community,” said Mansour.

    They are absolutely fucked.

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