"The safe zone will be primarily enforced by the Turkish Armed Forces," a joint US-Turkish statement released after the talks said. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described it as a pause, solely to allow the Kurdish fighters to withdraw. Pence said that once the pause became permanent, Washington would go ahead with its own plans to withdraw its forces from northern Syria, which had partnered with the Kurds to fight against Islamic State. US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey said the agreement covered central northeastern Syria and Turkey was in separate talks with the Russians and the Syrians about other parts of the region. Trump announced sanctions on Turkey on Monday, after the assault began, but critics said these were too little, too late.

Source: bd News24 October 17, 2019 22:52 UTC