BEIRUT, December 20. /TASS/. The US president’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria was a result of a secret deal between Washington and Ankara, Lebanese analyst Nidal Sabi, a leading expert on the Syrian dossier, told TASS on Thursday.
He said that after a period of bitter differences between the United States and Turkey, Ankara "has once again earned their total confidence and will again promote US interests in the Middle East."
"The regional policies of Ankara and Washington pursue the same goals and are aimed at fragmentation of Syria and Iraq," the expert said.
He believes that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is likely to use the deal with the US to relocate extremist groups, which are now being withdrawn from the Idlib de-escalation zone, to the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.
Besides, Sabi believes that the pullout of US troops would become a catastrophe for the Arab-Kurdish alliance known as Syrian Democratic Forces. He expects that a split within the ranks of this coalition would eventually trigger a major confrontation between Arab tribes and Kurdish groups in the east of Syria.
"In this new situation, Kurdish groups will have only one opportunity to avoid a situation, in which they are left face to face with Turkish troops: to re-align with the Syrian state and discard plans of Syrian federalization," the Lebanese analyst said.
According to him, a situation in which Ankara and Damascus team up to counter Kurdish separatism is completely ruled out.
"Syrian President Bashar Asad will never make a deal with Erdogan, whom he sees as the main culprit for the bloodshed on the Syrian land," Sabi said, adding that Assad "does not trust Erdogan, because he knows about his ties with Muslim Brotherhood fundamentalists [outlawed in Russia], who were the major driving force behind the so-called Arab Spring project.".