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Kurdish Leader: Turkish Offensive Will Help Re-Emergence of IS in Syria

Sirwan Kajjo

   KOBANI, SYRIA - As tensions between Turkey and Syrian Kurds increase,
   the United States seeks to play a mediating role in order to keep the
   focus on combating the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) terror group,
   a senior Syrian-Kurdish official said.

   In an interview with VOA at his base in northern Syria, Mazloum Abdi,
   the general commander of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said his group
   hopes that the U.S. will play a major role in calming the current
   escalation in northern Syria.

   "We believe that the U.S. is the main power that is capable of
   influencing Turkey's position and stop its threats against us," he
   said.

   "The U.S. is the leader of the NATO alliance, and so it has leverage
   over Turkey within the NATO framework," Abdi told VOA. "At the same
   time, it has strong ties with the SDF through the anti-IS alliance. So
   the U.S. knows both sides very well and it is the only power that can
   prevent war and bring all sides together."

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