ISTANBUL, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Iran would not militarily support a potential Turkish operation against the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in Syria despite their concern that an emerging autonomous Kurdish area is a major threat to Syrian territorial integrity, analysts said.
"Turkey would be ill-advised to start a military operation because neither Russia nor Iran is likely to support it," Faruk Logoglu, a former senior diplomat, told Xinhua.
The initial concurrence of Turkish, Russian and Iranian positions regarding the eastern part of the Euphrates River in Syria is only "skin-deep," he said.
Thanks mainly to the U.S. support, the Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units (YPG), has managed to control much of the eastern part of the Euphrates during the civil war.
In recent weeks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said Ankara is determined to eliminate the threat posed by the YPG, because Turkey sees the group as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting the Turkish government for more than three decades.
Since Turkish, Russian and Iranian leaders met in Tehran in September, Russia and Iran have also voiced concern about the Kurdish-controlled area and the U.S. presence there.
Still, Ankara cannot count on support from Moscow or Tehran to battle against the Syrian militia given a divergence of interests.
"Russia and Iran want the United States out of Syria while Turkey aims to curb the YPG influence in the area," noted Logoglu.
Despite an apparent convergence of discourse, it is unlikely that Moscow and Tehran, Ankara's partners in the Astana peace process which seeks a political settlement of the Syrian war, will back a Turkish military offensive to drive out the YPG, said Cahit Armagan Dilek, a former staff officer in the Turkish military.
Iran would not want Turkey, which it sees as a U.S. ally, to extend its control to the eastern part of Syria, while Russia would by no means take military action against the United States on the eastern part of the Euphrates, argued Dilek, head of the Ankara-based 21st Century Turkey Institute.
Dilek referred to the fact that Russia has not even attempted to prevent Israel from striking Syrian army positions so far.
"The strategy pursued by the Astana partners, as far as the YPG-held territory is concerned, is to use one another against the U.S.," he stated.
At the Tehran summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again stated Moscow's position on not treating the YPG as a terror group, saying 95 percent of the Syrian territory, except for Idlib, had been cleared of terrorists.
The area under the YPG control, which lies along the Turkish border, makes up more than 25 percent of the Syrian territory.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently said the area under U.S. control on the eastern part of the Euphrates poses a main threat to Syria's territorial integrity, demanding a cessation of efforts to carve out an autonomous, independent entity there.
At the Tehran summit, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on his Astana partners to persuade the United States to leave Syria and clear up the tangle on the eastern side of the Euphrates.
Both Dilek and Logoglu felt that Moscow and Tehran would want to see a direct confrontation between Turkish and U.S. forces.
The U.S. military has more than 20 bases and an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 troops in the area under YPG control.
Turkey's Erdogan recently said the United States had provided the YPG with 19,000 truckloads of weapons, accusing Washington of assisting terrorists.
"We are determined to clear the terror corridor in the eastern part of the Euphrates," he vowed.
Neither analysts, however, expected a Turkish military operation against the YPG, as such a move would mean a confrontation with the United States.
Despite sharp Turkish criticism, the United States continued providing sophisticated weapon systems to the YPG and has installed radars and air defense systems in its bases in the YPG area.
The YPG area is now totally under U.S. protection, said Dilek.
"Tendered by Russia, Turkey has already shouldered 'mission impossible' in Idlib and should, therefore, be better off leaving the business of handling American hold in the east of the Euphrates to the Russians and the Syrian state," stated Logoglu.
Turkey is currently tasked with persuading the Islamist groups, designated as terrorists in Idlib, to surrender their heavy weapons under a deal concluded with Russia last month on the creation of a demilitarized zone in the Syrian province, the last major bastion for rebels.
