A senior Kurdish politician Friday called on France to play a stronger role in Syria following the withdrawal of US troops from the country, warning that Kurdish fighters may have to withdraw from the front lines in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Ilham Ahmed also said France as a NATO member has a moral obligation to prevent Turkey from attacking Kurds.
Ahmed was in Paris as part of a delegation attending talks on the planned US military withdrawal from Syria and Turkey's threats to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.
The delegation met French President Emanuel Macron's representative to Syria, Francois Senemand.
President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria has left America's only allies in the country in the lurch and risks plunging the volatile region into even more instability.
The announcement has been widely seen as an abandonment of a loyal ally, even though the U.S. partnership with the Kurds against the Islamic State group in Syria was always considered a temporary marriage of convenience.
With U.S. air support, the Kurds drove IS from much of northern and eastern Syria in a costly four-year campaign.
"The decision to pull out under these circumstances will lead to a state of instability and create a political and military void in the region and leave its people between the claws of enemy forces," a statement by the Kurdish-led group and main U.S. ally in Syria said Thursday.
The U.S. announcement came at a particularly tense moment in northern Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly warned of launching a new offensive against the Kurds and in recent days has stepped up the rhetoric, threatening that an assault could begin "at any moment."
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