WASHINGTON, December 24. /TASS/. The Turkish-Syrian border has a 98-kilometer stretch crossed by fighters and used for transporting smuggled oil, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communication for the US President said in an exclusive interview with TASS.
"We’ve been working for some time with Turkey to close the 98-kilometer stretch of the border," Rhodes said. "We believe there’s been good progress on the northeastern part of the border. We continue to see oil and fighters that could be crossing that border."
Commenting on the terms of closure of the stretch, Rhodes said, "What we developed is a plan where the US and our partners on the ground are taking action in Syria, do air strikes and ground operations by Syrian forces."
"And Turkey will provide troops on the Turkish side of the border to make sure that the border is sealed," he said.
"Turkey has indicated that they want to pursue that with us," Rhodes said. "And their military is engaged in discussions with our military directly about how and when they will go about deploying forces to get that done."
"We hope we will be able to accomplish that in the coming months," Rhodes said.