JERUSALEM: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Friday, hours after Turkey agreed with the United States to pause its offensive on Kurdish forces in Syria. Israel sees Syria’s Kurds, once U.S. allies, as a counterweight to Islamist insurgents in northern Syria. It worries militants aligned with its arch-foe Iran could fill the vacuum left by a disengaged United States. Thursday’s truce, brokered in Ankara by a U.S. team including Pompeo and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, gives Kurdish forces five days to withdraw from a “safe zone” Ankara had sought to capture. Later on Friday, Pompeo will fly to Brussels for a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.-Reuters

Source: New Strait Times October 18, 2019 06:56 UTC