The United States took this long to commit to arming SDF, despite its stated objective of destroying ISIS, because of concerns from the Turkish government.

A top adviser for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ilnur Cevik, warned on May 3 that United States troops and equipment risk being destroyed due to their proximity to Kurdish forces in Northern Syria. Turkey claims those fighters are aligned with the Kurdish militant group the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK),

Next Cold War Roundup 1/29 Turkey Threatens to Enter War on Syrian Border. _ The Times in UK claims that Russia is working on a deal to create a Kurdish “enclave” and the Times frames this as a Russia provoking Turkey: “Kremlin provokes Akara with deal to secure Kurd enclave“: