Operation Euphrates Shield

Turkey has proposed to the United States that People’s Protection Units (YPG) militants withdraw to east of the Euphrates River in Syria and that Turkish and U.S. troops be stationed together in the country’s Manbij area, Reuters reported on Feb. 16, citing a Turkish official.

Washington could soon receive the "Ottoman slap," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned, while also stating that all members of NATO are equal with the US.

Turkey’s Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli on Feb. 13 attended a ministerial meeting in Rome of the global coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

 France wants air strikes in Syria to end and calls for the opening of humanitarian corridors as soon as possible, the French defense minister said on Friday.

"We are very preoccupied and are monitoring the situation on the ground very carefully. The air strikes need to end," Florence Parly said on France Inter radio, giving no further details.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said on Feb. 9 he will meet with his Turkish counterpart Nurettin Canikli in Brussels next week amid U.S. concern over Turkey’s plans to launch a military operation in Manbij, Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu paid a surprise visit to the Iranian capital Tehran on Feb. 7 to hold talks on Turkey’s ongoing “Operation Olive Branch” in the northern Syrian district of Afrin.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama “lied to Turkey” on the issue of Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syria’s Manbij region and current U.S. President Donald Trump “follows the same path,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said. 

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Feb. 3 reiterated Turkey's stance that the country fully backed Syria's territorial integrity despite the launch of Afrin operation.