ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Ankara would restart its operation against Kurdish forces in Syria on Tuesday if they were not withdrawn from a safe zone.
After US Vice President Mike Pence came to Ankara for talks with Erdogan earlier on Thursday, the NATO allies agreed Turkey would halt its offensive for five days in northern Syria while Kurdish fighters withdraw from the area.
Erdogan said in a briefing in Istanbul, “If the promises are kept until Tuesday evening, the safe zone issue will be resolved. If it fails, the operation will start the minute 120 hours are over.”
He said that Turkish armed troops would remain in the region because the security there required it.
On 9th October, Turkey launched the cross-border incursion after repeatedly threatening to clear the border area from the Kurdish People Protection Units (YPG) militia.
While US President Donald Trump appeared to initially green light the invasion, he made repeated threats against Turkey, often in tweets, following international outrage.
Read also: Turkey defiant on Syria operation as US demands ceasefire
He then sent Pence and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with other US officials to Ankara to thrash out a deal, which was announced on Thursday after hours of talks.
Erdogan said that the safe zone would be 32 kilometres (20 miles) deep, and 444 kilometres in length.
He added that the region between the border towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain had been cleared, but this is not over.
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