US told Kurds not to approach Jarablus -- Biden

ISTANBUL, Aug 24 (KUNA) -- The visiting US Vice Presidnt Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Washington had told Kurdish militias to abstain from crossing to the western bank of the Eurphrates toward the border town of Jarablus.
Speaking at a news conferemce with Turkish Prime Minster Ibrahim Yildirim, held in the capital Ankara, Biden said the US Administration had told the US-backed Kurdish irregular forces, explicitly, not to cross the river anew.
These Kurdish forces have recently wrestled the frontier town of Minbij from the Islamic State, prompting concern by regional powers namely Turkey that the Kurds might be a stone's throw from their long aspired objective of carving out an independent entity.
On other issues, Biden said that Washington and Ankara have been "assessing evidences" regarding the opposition leader Fethullah Gulen, wanted by Ankara on charges of masterming the recent futile bid to overthrow the government.
Gulen has been living in the United States for years. (end) ta.rk