Turkey will ask the United States officials during talks between both countries delegations on Tuesday, to either hand over its military bases, residing in Syria, to Ankara or destroy them, a request seen as complications over the US troops’ pullout from Syria.
According to news reported by Reuters, the US national security advisor John Bolton was set to have a meeting on Tuesday, with his Turkish counterpart Ibrahim Kalin, Turkish president’s spokesman and deputy head of Turkey’s security and foreign policies board, few days after Bolton’s recent statement where he added a condition to the US troops’ withdrawal saying that Turkey must protect US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria, the YPG militia, and must not attack them.
The US President Donald Trump has last month, announced to withdraw its troop from Syria saying it had defeated the Islamic State in the country. Trump’s move had prompted defence secretary Jim Mattis to resign.
Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group and as an extension of outlawed Kurdistan Workers party (PKK).
According to reports, while referring to 22 US military bases in Syria, Turkey said, “Give them or destroy them.” It said Turkey would never accept Washington handing over the Kurdish fighters to the YPG.
Last week, a senior Turkish security official has told Reuters that Washington needs to give allowance to Turkey to use US military bases in Syria.
As tensions have raised concern over Trump’s Syria strategy, it was still unclear if Bolton would hold a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan has warned the US troops’ pullout must be carefully planned saying only Turkey has “the power and commitment to perform that task”.