Turkey, US agree PYD cannot cross west of Euphrates: Turkish official

Turkey and the United States both agree that the Democratic Union Party (PYD) cannot be permitted to enter an area in Syria in which Turkey plans to establish a zone that will ostensibly be free of jihadists, according to a Foreign Ministry official. 

"There is no hesitation from the beginning regarding the understanding we have reached with the U.S. They [PYD] will not cross to the west of the Euphrates [River]. They will not perform ethnic cleansing and demographic surgery," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous, noting that displaced Arabs and Turkmens in the region would also return to their homeland as part of the consensus. 

The PYD is also "aware where they must stop," the official said, noting that the message was conveyed to the group through the U.S. and also through various channels that they should not penetrate into the zone that will ostensibly be cleared of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) between Jarablus and Azaz.

After the PYD's military wing, the People's Defense Units (YPG), removed ISIL from Tal Abyad in June, officials in Ankara declared that the PYD was more dangerous than the jihadist group, while also accusing the YPG of removing Arabs and Turkmens from the area. Many from the communities, however, have returned to the area now controlled by the PYD.

Turkey and U.S. have agreed in general terms on a plan that envisions clearing ISIL militants from northern Syria by forming an "ISIL-free zone." The ISIL-free zone will be 98 kilometers long and 40 kilometers wide and situated between the Marea-Jarablus line.

The plan crafted by Ankara and Washington foresees the deployment of Free Syrian Army (FSA) units to the area if ISIL is completely cleared from that particular zone,...