ANKARA: Turkey and the United States will soon launch “comprehensive” air operations to flush fighters of the self-styled Islamic State from a zone in northern Syria bordering Turkey, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.

Detailed talks between Washington and Ankara on the plans were completed on Sunday and regional allies including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan as well as Britain and France may also take part, Cavusoglu said.

“The technical talks have been concluded, yesterday, and soon we will start this operation, comprehensive operations, against Daesh,” he said.

The United States and Turkey plan to provide air cover for what Washington judges to be moderate Syrian rebels as part of the operations, which aim to flush IS from a rectangle of border territory roughly 80km long, officials familiar with the plans have said.

Diplomats say cutting IS’s access to the Turkish border, across which it has been able to bring foreign fighters and supplies, could be a game-changer. US jets have already begun air strikes from Turkish bases in advance of the campaign.

Cavusoglu said the operations would also send a message to President Bashar al-Assad and help put pressure on his administration to come to the negotiating table and seek a political solution for Syria’s wider war.

Ankara has long argued that lasting peace in Syria can only be achieved with Assad’s departure. US officials, meanwhile, have made clear that the focus of the coalition operations will be squarely on pushing back IS.

“Our aim should be eradicating Daesh from both Syria and Iraq, otherwise you cannot bring stability and security,” said Cavusoglu. “But eliminating the root causes of the situation (in Syria) is also essential, which is the regime of course.” A Pentagon spokesman said US and Turkish military officials had held talks on Sunday to work out the tactical details of integrating Turkish combat aircraft into the air campaign against IS.

“We’re looking forward in the near future to welcoming Turkey into our combined air operations centre,” Navy Captain Jeff Davis said in Washington.

Cavusoglu said Syrian Kurdish PYD militia forces, which have proved a useful ally on the ground for Washington as it launched air strikes on IS elsewhere in Syria, would not have a role in the “safe zone” that the joint operations aim to create, unless they changed their policies.

Ankara is concerned that the PYD and its allies aim to unite Kurdish cantons in northern Syria and fear those ambitions will stoke separatist sentiment among its own Kurds.

“Yes, the PYD has been fighting Daesh ... But the PYD is not fighting for the territorial integrity or political unity of Syria. This is unacceptable,” Cavusoglu said.

“We prefer that the moderate opposition forces actually control the safe zone, or Daesh-free areas, in the northern part of Syria, not the PYD, unless they change their policies radically in that sense.” Both Ankara and Washington had given this message directly to the PYD, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play