As Turkish leaders continue to make hawkish noises about Raqqa, a high-level delegation seeking to persuade the United States to exclude the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from a planned offensive to liberate the city from the Islamic State left Washington empty-handed, Al-Monitor has learned.
The team headed by Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Umit Yalcin and comprising the heads of the ministry’s US, Iraq and Syria departments along with senior members of the Turkish Armed Forces and the national spy agency MIT, pushed their case against the YPG in separate meetings on Feb. 13-14 with US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon, former national security adviser Michael Flynn before he resigned and CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph L. Votel, among others.