Obama and Erdogan to Discuss Syria and the Fight Against ISIS

U.S. president Barack Obama will meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday, August 4 for the first time since the failed coup in Turkey, CNN reported.

The two will meet for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in China, where they will discuss events in Turkey, the fight against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) and promoting stability in Syria, according to Reuters.

Last week, Turkey sent tanks over the border into Syria, saying it would target ISIS militants and attack Kurdish forces if they did not retreat east of the Euphrates river in Syria. U.S. vice president Joe Biden backed Turkey’s demands, insisting that Kurdish forces comply or risk losing U.S. support.

However, the main Kurdish militia in Syria, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), is a key U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS, and yesterday the Obama administration said it opposes further Turkish advances into territories controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters backed by the U.S.-led coalition and including the YPG.

The U.S. defense secretary, Ashton Carter, said Turkish and Kurdish forces in Syria should both concentrate their efforts on the battle against ISIS, according to Al Jazeera.

“We have called upon Turkey … to stay focused on the fight against ISIL [the U.S.’s preferred term for ISIS] and not to engage Syrian Defence Forces [sic], and we have had a number of contacts over the last several days,” Carter said. “We have called on both sides to not fight with one another, to continue to focus the fight on [ISIS]. That is the basis of our cooperation with both of them – specifically not to engage.”

Earlier in August, SDF took the northern town of Manbij – which lies west of the Euphrates – from ISIS militants following a battle that lasted more than two months.

Syrian Opposition Launches Offensive North of Hama

A major offensive by Syrian rebels won the strategic town of Halfaya, in the north of Hama province, from government forces, Reuters reported.

Despite weeks of Syrian government and Russian airstrikes on the northern Hama countryside, rebels were able to gain ground, fighting alongside the hardline jihadist group Jund al-Aqsa.

Jund al-Aqsa used suicide bombers to attack Syrian army checkpoints, bringing the rebel offensive closer to Suran, an army position near the northern entry to the provincial capital of Hama.

Halfaya lies near the main road that connects coastal areas with the Damascus-Aleppo highway, and is located near a number of government-held towns populated by minorities.

A military source told Reuters that government airstrikes killed dozens of rebels but refused to confirm whether Halfaya was under rebel control. The Syrian army is sending reinforcements to take back the town, according to pro-government websites.

Russia Looking for Ways to Cut Budget in Syria Intervention

Russia is trying to cut its defense budget in Syria, almost a year after its first military intervention on behalf of the Syrian government, Reuters reported.

Earlier this month, Russian military carried out airstrikes in Syria from an airbase in Iran in an attempt to cut costs. However, one week later Iran said Russia could no longer use its airbases.

“Our forces are insufficient, our coordination with the Iranians is not at the required level. We need to change something. What, I don’t know,” a source close to the Russian defense ministry told Reuters.

Although Russia has the military capacity to continue, and even intensify, its intervention in Syria, costs and an approaching parliamentary election may push Russia to participate more fully in negotiations to end the conflict, now in its sixth year.

“We are trying to conduct the operation in Syria within certain sums. The defense ministry has other expenditures,” Andrei Klimov, a member of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament, said.

Recommended Reads:

• The Guardian: U.N. Pays Tens of Millions to Assad Regime Under Syria Aid Programme
• The Wall Street Journal: Turkish Offensive on Islamic State in Syria Caught U.S. Off Guard
• Atlantic Council: A Bad Defense for a Mistaken Policy
• Buzzfeed: This Is Why Winning the Fight Against ISIS May Mean Losing the War
• The Intercept: U.S. Military Now Says ISIS Leader Was Held in Notorious Abu Ghraib Prison