Syrian Kurdish SDF officials announced on Sunday that they have agreed to fully withdraw from the 30 km buffer zone along the Turkish border, and will be withdrawing under the terms of the Russia-Turkey deal.



The SDF statement said that they are in the process of deploying already, and urged Russia to help them establish a “constructive dialogue” between the Kurds and the Assad government of Syria.



The SDF had claimed to withdraw under the US ceasefire, which ended a week ago. When that fell apart, Turkey was set to renew its offensive before Russia made a deal promising to get the rest of the Kurds out. That ceasefire is set to end on Tuesday night.



Turkey’s President Erdogan has suggested that the Kurdish “terrorists” are not out of the area yet, saying Turkey is advancing its establishment of a safe zone, and is prepared to “clean” the zone of Kurds if Russia misses the deadline.



Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz