\u201cPresident Trump relayed concerns that escalating violence in Afrin, Syria, risks undercutting our shared goals in Syria,\u201d<\/em> according to the White House readout of the conversation. \u201cHe urged Turkey to exercise caution and to avoid any actions that might risk conflict between Turkish and American forces.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Trump has further urged Turkey to deescalate and \u201climit its military actions\u201d<\/em> in order to \u201cavoid civilian casualties and increases to displaced persons and refugees.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n The US has around 2,000 troops and military \u201cadvisors\u201d<\/em> in Syria. Washington and Ankara may indeed come face-to-face there, although the possibility is \u201csmall,\u201d<\/em> Turkey\u2019s deputy prime minister said earlier, after Erdogan announced he was adamant he would \u201cthwart games\u201d<\/em> along Turkey\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n Despite calls to \u201cdeescalate\u201d<\/em> military involvement in Syria, the Turkish leader announced an extension of the operation from the Afrin region to the separate Kurdish-held enclave of Manbij. \u201cWith the Olive Branch operation, we have once again thwarted the game of those sneaky forces whose interests in the region are different,\u201d<\/em> Erdogan said. \u201cStarting in Manbij, we will continue to thwart their game.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The rift between the NATO allies has been growing despite the stated \u201cshared goal of achieving the lasting defeat\u201d<\/em> of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS\/ISIL) terrorists. Ankara\u2019s ire has been driven by the fact the US continues to support the Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey says are linked to the Kurdish PKK and are considered a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n The so-called \u2018Olive Branch\u2019 operation was launched last week in order to prevent Kurdish \u201cterrorists\u201d<\/em> from potentially gaining autonomy amid reports the US-led coalition was planning to create a new Kurdish-dominated Border Security Force (BSF) in Syria.<\/p>\n Russia has meanwhile expressed concern over the ongoing standoff, urging all parties to show restraint and respect the territorial integrity of Syria, while Damascus has condemned \u201cTurkish aggression on Afrin.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Donald Trump has raised concerns that Ankara\u2019s ongoing military operation in neighboring Syria, if not wound down, may result in a direct clash between the two NATO allies. \u201cPresident Trump relayed concerns that escalating violence in Afrin, Syria, risks undercutting our shared goals in Syria,\u201d according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-345872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"Turkish](\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.01\/thumbnail\/5a671283fc7e93090b8b4567.jpg\")
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