MUNICH: US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday left open the possibility of longer-term assistance to Kurdish YPG militia in Syria, saying the US may need to supply them weapons and equipment even after the capture of Raqqa from Islamic State.
NATO ally Turkey, which views the YPG as a threat, has said Mattis assured it in a letter that the United States would eventually take back the weapons it was giving them once Islamic State was defeated.
Mattis, in his first public remarks on the issue, did not directly dispute that account.
“We’ll do what we can,” Mattis told reporters during his flight to Germany, when asked about weapons recovery.
But Mattis also noted that YPG fighters were well-armed even before the US last month decided to offer more specialized equipment for its urban assault on Islamic State-held city of Raqqa.
Mattis also said the battle against Islamic State would continue even after Raqqa was captured and focused his answers about US weapons’ recovery on items he believed the YPG would no longer need in battle.
Asked if Kurdish militia would revert to their pre-Raqqa level of armaments once the fight was over, Mattis responded: “Well, we’ll see. It depends what the next mission is. I mean, it’s not like the fight’s over when Raqqa’s over.”
Turkey sees the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdish PKK, which has been waging an insurgency in the country’s southeast since the mid-1980s. It has said supplies to the YPG have in the past ended up in PKK hands, describing any weapons given to the force as a threat to its security.
The US, however, sees the YPG as an essential ally in the campaign to defeat Islamic State in Raqqa, the jihadists’ main urban base in Syria.
Mattis will meet his Turkish counterpart, Defense Minister Fikri Isik, on Thursday in Brussels.
The US, Mattis said, in the near-term would be recovering weapons that the group does not need anymore as the battle advances.
“We’ll be recovering (the weapons) during the battle, repairing them. When they don’t need certain things anymore, we’ll replace those with something they do need,” Mattis said.
US eyes arms for YPG fighters in Syria even after Raqqa’s fall
US eyes arms for YPG fighters in Syria even after Raqqa’s fall
Putin says developing Russia’s nuclear forces ‘absolute priority’
- Putin vowed to keep “strengthening the army and navy” and draw on military experience from the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that developing Russia’s nuclear forces was now an “absolute priority” following the expiry of its last remaining nuclear treaty with the US.
“The development of the nuclear triad, which guarantees Russia’s security and ensures effective strategic deterrence and a balance of forces in the world, remains an absolute priority,” Putin said in a video message.
His speech came on Russia’s “Defender of the Fatherland Day,” a holiday that is an occasion for military pomp and Kremlin-sponsored patriotism.
Putin vowed to keep “strengthening the army and navy” and draw on military experience from the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine.
All branches of the armed forces would be improved, he said, including their “combat readiness, their mobility, and their ability to operate in all conditions, even the most difficult.”
Putin’s remarks came just two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s assault on Ukraine that sparked a war that has shattered towns, uprooted millions and killed large numbers on both sides.
Moscow and Washington — the world’s two main nuclear powers — are no longer bound by any arms control pact since the New START agreement expired earlier this month.
But Russia said it would continue taking a “responsible” approach to strategic nuclear capability and respecting the limits set on its arsenal.
