YPG not irreplaceable for US anti-ISIS strategy: Ex-ambassador to Damascus
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The former United States ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, says there are other Syrian groups fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, but that they have not received the same support and attention from the US as the Kurds have.
“There are other groups operating up there that have been fighting the Islamic State and the Bashar al-Assad regime. They have never gotten the kind of support that the YPG have received, they have never gotten the kind of close combat air support that that Kurdish militia has received,” Ford said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
“I do not believe that the YPG is an irreplaceable element of an American strategy against Islamic State,” he went on to say.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the US presidential race, asked Ford if the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) were aiming to force ISIS out of the Manbij pocket in northeastern Syria and link-up its two primary cantons, Kobani and Jazira, with its westernmost canton, Afrin, and establish some kind of a Kurdish state in northern Syria.
"They haven't publicly said they want to create a state but they announced an autonomous zone, their model is something like the Iraqi Kurds have in Northern Iraq," Ford responded. "Absolutely they want to take that pocket and create a contiguous region. There is no question about that and that's why the Turks have reacted badly."
Ford told Rudaw last December that US support for the YPG against ISIS has given the Syrian Kurds hope that they can establish their own autonomous zone, which he said would not work without consulting other Syrian groups.
"I understand the Kurdish desires for an autonomous region," he told Rudaw, "The Kurdish region in Iraq works pretty well. But Syrian Kurds cannot unilaterally declare an autonomous region without reference to other Syrians. It's actually making things worse on the ground. It's driving some Arab tribes to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other tribes to help the Islamic State."
“There are other groups operating up there that have been fighting the Islamic State and the Bashar al-Assad regime. They have never gotten the kind of support that the YPG have received, they have never gotten the kind of close combat air support that that Kurdish militia has received,” Ford said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
“I do not believe that the YPG is an irreplaceable element of an American strategy against Islamic State,” he went on to say.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the US presidential race, asked Ford if the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) were aiming to force ISIS out of the Manbij pocket in northeastern Syria and link-up its two primary cantons, Kobani and Jazira, with its westernmost canton, Afrin, and establish some kind of a Kurdish state in northern Syria.
"They haven't publicly said they want to create a state but they announced an autonomous zone, their model is something like the Iraqi Kurds have in Northern Iraq," Ford responded. "Absolutely they want to take that pocket and create a contiguous region. There is no question about that and that's why the Turks have reacted badly."
Ford told Rudaw last December that US support for the YPG against ISIS has given the Syrian Kurds hope that they can establish their own autonomous zone, which he said would not work without consulting other Syrian groups.
"I understand the Kurdish desires for an autonomous region," he told Rudaw, "The Kurdish region in Iraq works pretty well. But Syrian Kurds cannot unilaterally declare an autonomous region without reference to other Syrians. It's actually making things worse on the ground. It's driving some Arab tribes to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other tribes to help the Islamic State."