Erdogan backs off oil row with Trump

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is staying
silent over an oil deal in northeast Syria to avoid a confrontation with Donald
Trump, analysts told Arab News on Saturday.
The surprise deal last week will allow Delta
Crescent Energy, a US company based in Delaware, to develop oil fields under
the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The agreement is thought to have the support of the
White House, and follows talks between US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and
SDF leader Mazlum Kobani.
Ankara regards the SDF as a terror group, a
political extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and Erdogan
was expected to react with anger.
But Joe Macaron, a Middle East foreign policy
analyst at the Arab Center in Washington, said Erdogan would not jeopardize his
relationship with Trump for an inevitable US oil contract in SDF-controlled
areas in Syria when he knows how important oil is for Trump.
“Ankara has made clear strategic gains in Syria and
Libya thanks to US support and has managed to push Kurdish forces away from its
border while altering the dynamics in Libya and the Eastern Mediterranean,” he
told Arab News.
Military analyst Navvar Saban said: “The Americans
have a plan for this area but we don’t know any detail about the contract. That
is why Ankara did not react strongly.”