Turkey’s capital Ankara is hosting the second meeting of a bilateral Turkish-US group to coordinate the American troop withdrawal from Syria, a diplomatic source said Friday.
CONTACTS WILL CONTINUE IN THE DAYS TO COME
The Turkey-US Joint Working Group, following its first meeting on Feb. 6 in the US, met Thursday for a gathering set to end today, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
The US pullout from Manbij, Syria and the area east of the Euphrates River — where Turkey has promised a counter-terrorist operation — topped the meeting. The US currently has more than 2.000 troops deployed in Syria, but announced last December that they were leaving, revised this week to say some 200-400 would stay.
The group meeting in Ankara is operating as a sub-unit of the Syria Working Group established in February 2018 between Turkey and the US. After the meeting, neither side is expected to comment, but its contacts will continue in the days to come, according to participants at the meeting.