Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Friday that Turkey will not stop its operation against the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria, no matter what anyone says.
“We will never stop this step we have taken against the PYD/YPG... We will not stop it no matter what anyone says,” Erdogan said, according to Reuters.
“We’re receiving threats from right and left, saying stop this progress,” he added.
Turkey intensified its air and artillery strikes in northeast Syria on Friday, escalating an offensive against Kurdish militia that has drawn warnings of humanitarian catastrophe.
Turkey launched the military operation on Wednesday in an attempt to push out Kurdish militias. The operation began three days after President Donald Trump’s announcement on Sunday of a withdrawal of US forces in northeastern Syria, with some arguing the move was an authorization for Turkey to invade the region.
While Trump defended his administration’s plans to withdraw US forces from northern Syria, he also made clear that the US would not allow Turkey to do anything inhumane in Syria.
On Thursday, a senior State Department official warned that the US will take penalizing action against Turkey if it engages in any “inhumane and disproportionate” moves against civilians during its incursion into northeastern Syria.
Meanwhile, 29 Republicans in the US House of Representatives announced they would introduce legislation to impose sanctions against Turkey in the wake of its assault on Kurdish forces in Syria.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)