Battle for city strains US-Turkey ties over long-term US strategy in Syria
The battle for the city near the frontier with Turkey has emerged as a major early test for the air campaign aimed at rolling back and eventually destroying the extremist group.
It has also strained ties between Washington and Ankara over the long-term US strategy in Syria. The US special envoy for the coalition, retired marine general John Allen, and Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg are in Turkey to press the country to join military operations.
But attacking Assad’s regime “is not the focus of our international coalition and not the focus of our efforts by the United States”,State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.Turkish officials have said while they do not want Kobani to fall, they will not take on a greater role until the coalition outlines a broader strategy that also includes attacking Syrian president Bashar Assad, who is best positioned to benefit from any roll-back of the Islamic State group.
She said Gen Allen and Turkish officials discussed ways to advance the effort against IS and said a joint military planning team would visit Ankara early next week.
“Both sides also agreed that we will continue a dynamic and deepening bilateral consultation process across the multiple lines of effort against Isil, including military support, countering foreign fighters, counter-finance, humanitarian assistance, and delegitimising Isil’s messaging and rhetoric”, she said, using an acronym for IS.
Turkey has also called for the creation of a buffer zone inside Syria to secure the border, but the White House and Pentagon said the US was not considering that option. Such a zone would be costly and complex to enforce.
US officials said the US is largely talking to Turkey about other things it could do besides inserting ground forces into the fight: allowing US and coalition aircraft to fly over Turkish territory; allowing its air base in Incirlik, 160km from the Syrian border, to be used by US or coalition planes or for logistics and training; and equipping moderate Syrian opposition forces fighting to topple Assad.
The fight for Kobani has brought Syria’s civil war yet again to Turkey’s doorstep and for weeks the US and its allies have pressed Ankara to take a more robust role in the coalition. In addition, Kurds have held massive demonstrations across Turkey in which they accuse the government, which has deployed its tanks just across the frontier, of doing nothing to save the city.
Ankara is suspicious of the Syrian Kurdish forces fighting in Kobani, seeing them as an extension of the Kurdish PKK, which waged a long and bloody uprising against Turkey.
Responding to the criticism, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was unrealistic to expect Turkey to launch a ground war against IS on its own.
He spoke at a news conference in Ankara with Mr Stoltenberg, who said there was no easy solution for Kobani.
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