Turkey said it hopes a planned military operation into Syria’s Manbij will not be necessary and that it would instead resolve differences over the town through dialogue with the United States – while warning Washington that if such a diplomatic solution would not be achieved, Ankara will be forced to expand its operation to the city of Manbij. “If an outcome won’t be achieved by the talks (with the United States) then Turkey will be the one to say the last word. In that case Turkey will cleanse the terrorists there like it cleansed the terrorists in Afrin. We hope that this issue will be solved by dialogue without a need for such an operation,” Bozdag said.
Turkey has a 911-kilometer border with Syria, around 600 kilometers of which is currently under the control of the YPG militia – the most powerful force within the U.S.-backed SDF alliance. Turkish president Erdogan vowed to extend the Turkish offensive toward the city of Manbij, which is part of Kurdish-held territory some 100 kilometers east of Afrin. The main obstacle to Turkish objectives, however, lays at the fact that some U.S. forces have been stationed in Manbij since 2016, when the city was liberated from the Islamic State.