Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

U.S. President Barack Obama gave guarantees to Ankara that self-defense forces of Syrian Kurds will not take Manbij city in the northern Syria, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Day.Az reported with the reference to RIA Novosti.

Earlier, the Head of the Syrian Kurdish Representation in Moscow, Rodi Osman told that despite Turkey’s request to leave the western bank of the Euphrates, military forces of the “Federation of Northern Syria and Rozhava” and Syrian democratic forces will not leave Manbij, which was cleared off the terrorist group “Islamic State”.

“90% of the population of Manbij consists of Arabs. Other ethnicities, including the Kurds are minorities. I told about this to President Barack Obama, noting that Syrian self-defense forces cannot go there and he, in turn, guaranteed this to me. It is documented”, said Erdogan at a press conference at Ankara Airport before leaving for Chinese city Hangzhou for G20 summit.

On August 24 morning, the Turkish Air Force with the support of the coalition aircrafts launched an operation to liberate the city of Jarabulus from the IS militants in northern Syria, near Aleppo city.

The operation was carried out under the name “Shield of the Euphrates.” Jarabulus is located 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Turkish-Syrian border.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz