Turkey makes progress on sealing Syria border, but is it enough?
WASHINGTON — In July, Turkey granted the United States access to use its military bases to conduct air operations against the Islamic State (IS) and to station search and rescue teams. This may have insulated it from Western frustration at Turkey’s slow efforts to close off a remaining 98-kilometer (60-mile) stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border that US officials say is being used by foreign fighters to enter Syria and by IS to smuggle oil. In addition, the United States recognizes that efforts to seal the Turkish-Syrian border have been further complicated by the lack of sufficient Syrian rebel allies to hold land on the Syrian side of the border, by Turkey’s rejection of an autonomous Syrian Kurdish entity emerging on its border and by the humanitarian need to let Syrian refugees flee from the conflict to safety, according to diplomats and analysts.
More:Turkey makes progress on sealing Syria border, but is it enough? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
