Trump says…: Erdogan wants ceasefire with Kurds to work

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Friday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had assured him that he wants "ceasefire" with Kurdish militants in northern Syria to work.

Trump said he had spoken to Erdogan and "he very much wants the ceasefire, or pause, to work. "Likewise, the Kurds want it, and the ultimate solution, to happen," the US president tweeted.

"There is good will on both sides & a really good chance for success," he said.

Trump also said that "some" European countries, which he did not name, "are now willing, for the first time, to take the (Islamic State group) fighters that came from their nations." "This is good news, but should have been done after WE captured them," he said.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Ankara would restart its operation against Kurdish forces in Syria if they did not withdraw from a "safe zone". Turkey has agreed to suspend its offensive for five days in northern Syria while Kurdish fighters withdraw from the area, after high stake talks with US Vice President Mike Pence in Ankara. "If the promises are kept until Tuesday evening, the safe zone issue will be resolved. If it fails, the operation... will start the minute 120 hours are over," Erdogan told reporters during a foreign media briefing in Istanbul. He said Turkish armed forces would remain in the region "because the security there requires this", adding that the agreement was holding and there had been no issues so far. But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday there had been Turkish air strikes on the village of Bab al-Kheir, east of Ras al-Ain on the border. The war monitor said 14 civilians were killed.

Erdogan also condemned the abuses that some Syrian proxies are accused of having committed during the offensive. "Whoever commits such an act is no different from (the Islamic State group). We cannot accept such a thing," he said, adding that the army was investigating the claims. Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria also accused Turkey of resorting to banned weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus munitions, a charge Erdogan denied.

"There are certainly no chemical weapons in the inventory of our armed forces. This is all slander against our armed forces," he added.

He accused the YPG of freeing nearly 750 IS extremists including 150 Turks but said 195 of them had been caught.

Erdogan said Ankara was not bothered by the Syrian regime’s control of the areas cleared from the Kurdish fighters. "The regime’s control is not a source of concern to us. What matters to us is that terror groups leave the safe zone."