Turkey may start a new military operation in Syria at any moment, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, adding that the White House has responded positively to Ankara’s plans to push into territory where its forces have not previously operated, Reuters reported.

The Pentagon has expressed grave concern, saying unilateral military action by any party in northeast Syria - where U.S. forces operate - would be “unacceptable”.
But Erdogan suggested that President Donald Trump was more receptive to Turkish plans to move east of the Euphrates river than his own U.S. Defense Department.

“We officially announced that we will start a military operation to the east of the Euphrates, “Erdogan said in a speech in the central province of Konya. “We discussed this with Mr Trump and he gave a positive response.”

Turkey and the United States have long been at odds over Syria policy, where Washington has backed the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia against Islamic State. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization tied to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an outlawed group that has waged a three-decade insurgency in southeast Turkey.