As I wrote on August 14 the war in Syria still has the potential to turn into a global conflict after Turkey threatened another ground incursion into Kurdish-controlled regions along the Turkish Syrian border and after the Syrian army breached a cease-fire agreement and started an offensive against Islamist rebel groups in the north-western Province Idlib in Syria.
At the time, the Americans tried to convince Turkish autocratic leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to launch another military operation in what is called Rojava, the Kurdish autonomous region along the Turkish border in Syria.
Turkey and The United States agreed on the establishment of a 250 miles wide and 18 miles deep ‘safe zone’ along the Turkish border in Syria and decided to form a joint operations center which should implement what they termed the “peace corridor” decision n.
The agreement (temporarily?) prevented the Turkish operation against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) but Erdogan then decided to send his forces into the Idlib Province in northwest Syria.
On Sunday, Turkish army units tried to reach the town of Khan Sheikhoun which was under attack of the Russian-Iranian-backed pro-Assad coalition.
The convoy of heavy weaponry, including tanks, was officially meant to reinforce the Turkish observation posts in Idlib but Arab media reported that the weapons were to be delivered to the coalition of Islamist rebels in Idlib which is led by former al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
It would have been the first time that NATO member Turkey tried to deliver weapons to the Syrian Islamist in broad daylight. READ MORE
