National Defense Minister Fikri Işık participated in the live broadcast of a TV and explained the ongoing operations in Al-Bab and the operations of Manbij and Raqqa planned to be done. Işık also stated that Chief of Staff Joseph Dunford will come to Turkiye tomorrow.

Emphasizing that El-Bab is completely surrounded, Işık said, "There is an intense activity to clean the center of El-Bab, which is done with the ÖSO. It is expecting the life to be normal after the cleansing of Al-Bab.”

After Al-Bab, Işık expressed his hope that the PYD / PKK elements in Manbij would be completely withdrawn, and said that they are working with the US on this issue.

Stating that they haven’t get the desired result so far, Işık said, "After the operation of Al-Bab we have two priorities: one is Manbij and other is Raqqa. We cannot accept the existence of the PKK at Manbij. We are determined to achieve this goal."

Emphasizing that the US considers Raqqa operation, Işık said that "Turkiye's priority is not to make this operation with the wrong actors. Use of a terror organization against another terror organization is a development that will cause a catastrophic failure. If you want the Raqqa operation to be successful, you should not be done with YPG but with Arabic elements.”

Raqqa operation to discuss with Dunford

Explaining that US Chief of General Staff Joseph Dunford will come to Turkiye tomorrow, Işık said that Dunford will meet with Turkish Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar. That "Raqqa operation can be done together or not. What I have seen that the US has not made a definite decision on this issue. They are not at the point that they will do this operation with PYD. (ILKHA)