U.S. still in talk with Turkey on security zone in Syria: Pentagon

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon said Thursday that it has continued to talk to Turkey about the possibility of estalishing a security zone in Syria.

"Our military commanders are still talking," Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, joint staff director, told reporters at a daily press briefing.

"We've looked at that for a couple of years in various different iterations, and no final decision on it yet," McKenzie said.

Pentagon's remarks came although Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier in the day that Turkey was not going to discuss building a possible security zone with the United States until trust was re-established between the two NATO allies.

Cavusoglu said trust between the two countries was damaged as the United States has not kept its promises to Turkey.

On Wednesday, the United States and Turkey released contradicting readouts of a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, revealing deepened disagreements between the two NATO allies on the issue of Syria.

Turkey launched a military offensive, dubbed Operation Olive Branch, on Saturday against the People's Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey considers as the offshoot of its outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Ankara's military operation followed U.S. officials' statements about a plan to establish a Kurdish-led "border security force (BSF)" in the future in Syria along the 900-km border with Turkey, a move that has angered Turkey.

The BSF would be mainly constituted by the YPG, which has been supported politically and militarily by the United States since 2014 in the battle against the Islamic State. Enditem