MESOP : MADAME PSAKIS INTERPRETATION / UNITED STATES WITH PYD/PKK

17- Oct 2014 – State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. is “certainly aware of the connection” between the PKK and what she described as some members of the PYD. She said the U.S. still considers the PKK as a terrorist group, and “we have the same concerns we’ve had for a long time.”It was the first time U.S. officials have met with the PYD, although the two sides have communicated in the past through intermediaries.

The meeting focused on the ongoing fight that Syrian Kurds have given Islamic State militants as they seek to overtake land near Turkey’s border. The PYD is running the Kurdish fighters’ front in the Syrian city of Kobani, a month-long battleground that has riveted much of the world and been the site of more than 100 U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic extremists, including 14 on Thursday. Psaki also predicted the U.S. would continue to engage with the PYD, although she said it was too soon to consider whether the Kurdish fighters would be given foreign help to battle the Islamic State.

The meeting “does not represent coordination — it represents one conversation,” Psaki said.