[Asharq Al-Awsat] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday that Ankara will launch a new operation against US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria east of the Euphrates River.Turkish forces have already forced the People’s Protection Units (YPG) from the region west of the Euphrates. Ankara considers the group a terror threat and an extension of Kurdish rebels waging an insurgency in southeast Turkey.
Erdogan's remarks came just days after the Turkish military shelled Syrian Kurdish positions in the region.
"Soon, we will descend on them with more comprehensive and effective" force, he vowed before members of his AK ruling party.
“We will destroy terror structures east of the Euphrates,” he added.
Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said Turkish artillery strikes on Sunday hit Kurdish trenches and positions on a hill in the village of Zor Moghar, in rural northern Aleppo.
On Idlib, Ankara rejected Syrian regime claims that it is not meeting its obligations under an agreement to create a demilitarized zone around the opposition-held northeastern region.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu dismissed the allegations on Tuesday, saying the agreement was continuing as planned.
"There are currently no issues in implementing the memorandum... Everything is going as planned," he told a news conference in Istanbul.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Turkey was doing its best to fulfill difficult obligations in Idlib, but that "not everything was going as it was planned".
Russia did not see a threat that the agreement would fail, he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a four-way summit on Syria with Turkey, Germany, and France on Saturday that Ankara was fulfilling its obligations in Idlib.
The leaders at the Istanbul summit stressed the importance of a lasting ceasefire in Syria, and said a committee to create a new constitution should meet by the end of the year.
Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkey would ensure a more active international role in Idlib after the summit.
Peskov said Moscow would inform Syrian officials about the outcome of the summit.