The US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, on Friday described the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as “YPG, a derivative of the PKK,” and made clear that Washington does not support the creation of a separate SDF state or “free Kurdistan” in Syria.

Axar.az informs, citing Anadolu Agency, “SDF is YPG. YPG is a derivative of PKK,” Barrack said in response to a question during a press briefing at the Foreign Press Center in New York. “YPG was a spin-off of PKK that we allied with to fight ISIS,” he said.

“So there’s a big sentiment that, because they were our partners, we owe them. The question is, what do we owe them? We don’t owe them the ability to have their own independent government within a government,” he said.

“There’s not an indication that there’s going to be a free Kurdistan. There’s not an indication that there’s going to be a separate SDF state. There’s no indication on our part that there’s going to be a separate Alawite state or a separate Jewish state. There’s Syria,” he added.

He said the Syrian government rejects federalism and ruled out the attempts to divide the country along ethnic or sectarian lines as unworkable, adding: “You can’t have a separate Druze force dressed like Druze, separate Alawite force dressed like Alawites, separate Kurd force dressed like Kurds, and on and on. There’s going to be one entity.”

Barrack noted that the US is encouraging dialogue but made clear that it will not remain in Syria “forever.”

“We’ll bring you together, we’ll arbitrate, we’ll mediate, we’ll help, but we’re not going to stick around,” he said, adding: “If you guys don’t agree, don’t agree, but we’re not going to be here forever as the babysitter.”

The Turkish government has repeatedly stressed over the years that the so-called SDF is led by the YPG, the Syrian branch of the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organization by both the US and Türkiye.

Successive US administrations, however—including President Trump’s first term, as well as those of Presidents Obama and Biden—have regarded the SDF as their primary partner in the fight against ISIS (Daesh) in Syria.