Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Kremlin Confident Turkey Will Soon Halt Syria Incursion

Jamie Dettmer

   MOSCOW - Russian officials say they expect Turkey to start halting soon
   its cross-border incursion in north-eastern Syria. They say Syria's
   Kurds have agreed to shelve their plans for a self-governing state and
   Kurdish fighters will join Syrian forces patrolling the border.

   The deal-making between Damascus and the Kurds started in earnest
   nearly a year ago when U.S. President Donald Trump first broached the
   idea of withdrawing U.S. troops from Kurdish-controlled northeastern
   Syria, say officials who spoke on the condition they not be identified.

   They pointed to one of the announced war aims of Turkish President
   Recep Tayyip Erdogan on launching his cross-border offensive, formally
   known as Operation Peace Spring -- to ensure Syria's territorial
   integrity, code, the Russian officials say, for a Kurdish statelet not
   to emerge in northeast Syria. "We have been the oil in the
   negotiations," a Russian official told VOA.

.