MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and the US Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday they reached an agreement that forces of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) must not move to the west of Euphrates river.
"There is a point we agree with that PYD elements should not go to the west of the Euphrates and they should not get involved in any of the activities here. We evaluated this issue in our meeting today and saw the determination of the United States about this issue so these YPG and PYD elements will not be existing in the west of the Euphrates," Yildirim told journalist at the joint press conference with Biden.
The Turkish armed forces, backed by the US-led coalition aircraft, launched a campaign dubbed "Euphrates Shield" to clear Jarablus of extremist militants in the early hours of Wednesday.
"They [YPG] must move back across the river, they cannot, will not and under no circumstances get American support," Biden added.
Yildirim called on the United States to review its stance on both PYD and YPG.
"The United States of America should know that at the end of a day, they [PYD, YPG] are a terrorist group. Maybe you can beat the other one [Daesh] with the terrorist organization but at the end it will become another question how to deal with these terrorist organizations. So for that reason they should review their stance," Yildirim told journalists.
Ankara views YPG and PYD as offshoots of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and has recently began a push to force the United States to recognize PYD as a terrorist organization.
