Turkey ‘heading in wrong direction’ over Syria: US

BRUSSELS: Turkey is “heading in the wrong direction” with its incursion into  Syria  and its deal with Russia to jointly patrol a “safe zone” there, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned Thursday.
“Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation” by sweeping into northern  Syria  this month to fight Kurdish militia allied with the US in the fight against the Islamic State group, Esper told a conference in Brussels ahead of a NATO defence ministers’ meeting.
“I think the incursion’s unwarranted,” Esper said.
The onus was on Turkey’s NATO allies to now “work together to strengthen our partnership with them, and get them on the trend back to being the strong reliable ally of the past,” he said.
The issue of Turkey’s military offensive in  Syria  is set to dominate the two-day NATO meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying “frank” discussions with Ankara’s representatives have already taken place.
A subsequent arrangement with Russia to clear Kurdish militia that Turkey regards as “terrorists” linked to the outlawed PKK group on its soil has also raised hackles.