Turkey to set up Syria 'security zone'

• Erdogan's announcement came a day after he spoke with Trump 
• New envoy in Syria to revive UN mediation efforts

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said that Ankara would set up a "security zone" in northern Syria suggested by US President Donald Trump.

Erdogan's comments came a day after he held a telephone call with Trump in a bid to ease tensions after the US leader threatened to "devastate" the Turkish economy if Ankara attacks Kurdish forces.

Turkey has welcomed Washington's planned withdrawal of some 2,000 US troops from Syria but the future of US-backed Kurdish militia forces labelled terrorists by Ankara has poisoned ties between the Nato allies.

Erdogan said he held a "quite positive" telephone conversation with Trump late on Monday where he reaffirmed that "a 20-mile (30 kilometre) security zone along the Syrian border... will be set up by us."

Trump on Sunday tweeted the United States would "devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds", a threat that drew angry retorts from Ankara.

Turkey is home to over three million Syrian refugees. Since early in the conflict, Ankara has called for a safe area backed up by a no-fly zone on its border with Syria to protect civilians from air and ground attacks.

The Turkish leader however dismissed any presence of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in that zone.

Meanwhile, the new special UN envoy to Syria began his first trip to Damascus yesterday, facing the daunting task of rekindling moribund peace talks and succeeding where his three predecessors failed.

Norway's Geir Pedersen, who replaces Staffan de Mistura, is the fourth negotiator to have been appointed UN special envoy to Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011.