White House restates US will stop arming "certain groups" in Syria, Iraq

The United States plans to reduce military support for groups fighting Daesh in Iraq and Syria but that does not mean Washington will stop all aid to those groups, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Monday.

The statement comes three days after Turkey said US President Donald Trump told President Recep Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should no longer be provided to the YPG, an extension of the PKK, which the US, the EU and Turkey consider a terrorist group. 

Sanders said with Islamic State's territory shrinking "we're in a position to stop providing military equipment to certain groups but that doesn't mean stopping all support of those individual groups."

The decision to stop arming the YPG, though the White House did not name the group, will ease tensions between the United States and Turkey, a NATO ally. 

Turkey has long complained about US support for the group.

It was Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who first told reporters last Friday that Trump pledged to end US arming of the YPG.

“President Trump has instructed [his generals] in a very open way that the YPG will no longer be given weapons. He openly said this absurdity should have ended much earlier,” Cavusoglu said.

The phone call between Trump and Erdogan followed a summit on Syria that was held in Sochi, Russia. 

Erdogan, Russian President Vladi­mir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani discussed the future of Syria at the summit.  

The three countries are working together to bring peace in Syria. They have said US troops should leave Syria now that Daesh's presence in the country has shrunk significantly.