ANKARA - Turkey has no choice but to act alone given too little progress has been made with the United States forming a “safe zone” in northeastern Syria, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday in his most direct indication of a cross-border offensive. After eight years of war in neighbouring Syria, Ankara and NATO ally Washington have agreed to establish a zone along 480 km (300 miles) of the border that Turkey wants to be 30 km deep. Under the Turkish plan, up to 2 million Syrian refugees would be settled in the area that would be cleared of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara deems a terrorist organisation. Since agreeing to set up the zone in northern Syria, Turkey has repeatedly warned of unilateral military action if efforts do not meet its expectations, saying it would not tolerate any attempts by Washington to stall the process. It set an end-September deadline for action.
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Agencies
October 02, 2019
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