ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE: L’administration Trump prête à armer les combattants kurdes en Syrie
by Stéphane Aubouard
Translated Monday 22 May 2017, by
The Trump Administration has decided to arm the Kurdish militia YPG in Syria, at risk of provoking Turkey’s anger towards those whom they consider enemies.
Jeff Davis, the Pentagon’s spokesperson, says that the American president has authorised the Pentagon to “equip” the Kurdish militia “as much as is necessary to earn a clear victory over the ‘Islamic State’ group at Raqqa, the de facto capital of the dijihadists”.
Washington would thus provide Syrian Kurds with “small arms, munitions, machine guns, armoured vehicles or engineering equipment”, like bulldozers.
Less than a week after the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to the United States, the decision constitutes a major turning point for the American administration which refused up until now to go against Turkey’s advice, as a NATO member and Washington’s strategic ally.