BEIRUT — Turkey and the United States appear to be edging closer toward the establishment of a so-called safe zone in northeast Syria.
Turkey's Defense Ministry says Turkish and U.S. officials have agreed to set up a "Joint Action Center" to coordinate and manage such a zone.
In a statement issued at the end of three days of talks between Turkish and U.S. officials, the ministry said the center would be based in Turkey and would be set up "as soon as possible."
The ministry did not provide further details but said the sides had agreed that the safe zone would become a "corridor of peace" and that all additional measures would be taken to ensure the refugees' return to Syria.
Turkey has been pressing to control — in coordination with the U.S. — a 19-25 mile-deep zone within Syria, east of the Euphrates River, and wants no Syrian Kurdish forces there.
Turkey sees the Syrian Kurdish fighters as terrorists aligned with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.