Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that his forces would "crush the heads" of Syrian Kurdish forces in northern Syria if they did not complete a pullout from the border area within the stipulated time.
"Today is the second day [of the ceasefire]. This process will end on Tuesday night. If the promises given to Turkey are not fulfilled, we will not wait, as before. We will continue the operation we started and will continue to destroy terrorists," Erdogan was quoted as saying by Sputnik on Saturday.
US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Ankara on Thursday, to attend a meeting with the Turkish President and brokering a 120-hour long ceasefire deal aimed at allowing Syrian Kurdish forces to retreat to a distance of about 30 km from the Syrian-Turkish border.
The president added that Ankara would "implement its own plans" if Ankara could not reach a solution with Russia on the Syrian forces deployed in the country's north.
In addition, Erdogan once again reiterated that he has planned to discuss the deployment of Syrian forces in a 'safe zone' in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week.
"Yesterday I held talks with US President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, we will continue the dialogue with Mr. Putin. In the area where the operation is taking place, the troops of the regime [of Syrian President Bashar Assad] are under the protection of Russia. We will discuss this with Mr. Putin," he said.
Last Sunday, after Turkey began a military operation in northern Syria it said was aimed at the Syrian Kurdish 'terrorists', local Kurdish forces reached an agreement with Damascus allowing Syrian Army troops to take up positions along the entirety of the Syrian-Turkish border to try to prevent a Turkish assault.
Turkey began its operation on October 9, days after the pullout of US troops from northern Syria.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper has said that the American troops ordered to leave northeastern Syria would now move to western Iraq and conduct operations against the Islamic State (IS) terror group.
