US says Manbij road map unaffected by row with Turkey

WASHINGTON - Anadolu Agency

An ongoing row between Turkey and the U.S. has not affected a bilateral agreement about the northern Syrian city of Manbij, the State Department's acting Middle East chief said Friday.

Addressing reporters on a conference call on Syria, David Satterfield said "there has been no impact" on the plan from the spike in tensions.

"The proceeding upon the Manbij roadmap by all parties involved has been smooth and extremely encouraging. There has been no consequence or impact that we can discern of the other bilateral issues in play here," Satterfield said.

Relations between the NATO allies have soured in recent weeks following Washington’s imposition of sanctions on Turkish officials over the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson, who is under house arrest in Turkey on terrorism charges.