Turkey and US to coordinate Syria withdrawal and avoid vacuum
The announced US troops withdrawal from Syria leads to worries of a power vacuum, with multiple parties looking on with interest.
The planned US troops pull-out will leave oil and agricultural-rich areas currently controlled by the Kurdish YPG vulnerable.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly said that he wants to retake the enclave, but Ankara wants the areas handed over to representatives from Arab-majority towns that are currently under YPG control.
Turkey has maintained that it has no territorial ambitions in Syria, but views the YPG forces are linked to the Kurdish PKK that has been fighting for self-rule in southern Turkey and worries that the YPG forces may cut a deal with Assad.
Turkey and the US appear to have agreed to coordinate the troops withdrawal from the area to avoid a power vacuum that could draw a number of interested parties.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reports from Akcakale, on the Turkish-Syrian border.