At a two-day summit meeting in Brussels, EU leaders discussed the situation in northern Syria in the wake of the Turkish military action against the Kurdish forces
BRUSSELS—’’The so-called ceasefire is not what we expected,’’ declared European Union Council President Donald Tusk on Friday about the pause of the Turkish offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria which was announced on Thursday by U.S Vice President Mike Pence after a meeting with Turkey’s President Recept Tayyip Erdogan.
Responding a question at a press conference following a two-day summit meeting of the 28 EU leaders in Brussels, Tusk s said : ‘’In fact this is not a ceasefire, it’s a demand of capitulation of the Kurds.’’
‘’We have to be very consistent and we have to reiterate our call for Turkey to put a permanent end to its military action immediately,’’ he added.
US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agreed with Erdogan that Turkey would: “pause Operation Peace Spring in order to allow for the withdrawal of YPG [Kurdish] fighter from the safe zone for 120 hours.”
The ceasefire also stipulates that Kurdish militants, including the People’s Protection Units (YPG), would have their heavy weapons collected and their fortifications and fighting positions disabled. However, fighting between Turkish and Kurdish forces was still being reported Friday morning in the border town of Ras al-Ayn.