US alliance with YPG/PKK not long-term: former envoy

By Umar Farooq</p> <p>WASHINGTON (AA) – The U.S. relationship with the YPG/PKK terrorist group in northern Syria was a tactical military alliance, not long-term, the former American ambassador to Syria said Thursday.</p> <p>Speaking on a conference call with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Robert Ford said he did not see the U.S. withdrawal from Syria as a betrayal of their alliance with the YPG/PKK, due to the nature of their relationship.</p> <p>&quot;We did not have a formal relationship with the Syrian Kurdish fighters on the ground, the YPG militia connected to the PKK. They were up to their necks in alligators, in ISIS alligators,&quot; Ford said, referring to the Daesh terrorist group by another name. &quot;We stepped in first with airstrikes and later supplies and began to help them.</p> <p>&quot;It was in the Syrian Kurds' interest to fight ISIS. They were not doing it as a favor to the United States.&quot;</p> <p>In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU — has been responsible for the death of some 40,000 people. The YPG is the group's Syrian branch.</p> <p>Ford, who served as Syrian ambassador from 2010 to 2014, referred to the U.S.-YPG relationship as a &quot;tactical alliance,&quot; and during his time under former U.S. President Barack Obama, he said he was assured that &quot;no long-term commitment to the YPG or the PYD, its political branch&quot; was being made.</p> <p>&quot;This was a tactical, military operation against a common enemy,&quot; Ford added.</p> <p>Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of 2,000 military troops from Syria. </p> <p>The pullout decision came during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which the two leaders agreed on the need for more effective coordination over the civil war-torn country.