There is ‘a conflict of interest’ between the United States and Turkey over the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the affiliated forces, says an analyst.

On Saturday, the US called on Turkey to halt military strikes on YPG and the Syrian Army in the northern province of Aleppo.

“We are concerned about the situation north of Aleppo and are working to de-escalate tensions on all sides,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

“W‎e have urged Syrian Kurdish and other forces affiliated with the YPG not to take advantage of a confused situation by seizing new territory,” Kirby said.

‎”We have also seen reports of artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border and urged Turkey to cease such fires,‎” he added.

“There is a conflict of interest when it comes to this question of the Kurds, because the Kurds have long been in conflict with Turkey,” Keith Preston, Chief Editor and Director of AttacktheSystem.com, told Press TV on Sunday.

“Due to the desolation and disorder that’s developed in the region, that’s given the Kurdish people a unique opportunity to go about fighting for their independence,” he noted.

“This obviously is viewed as a threat by the Turkish government, who considers the Kurdish independence movement to be a terrorist movement,” he added.

“At the same time, that creates a conflict between Turkey and the United States because the United States has long viewed the Kurds as allies” who fought against Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein and now “are directly involved in conflicts with the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS).”

Preston said the United States “is working both for and against” the Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

“On one hand, they do not want ISIS to spread behind a certain point, they don’t want ISIS to spread into Iraq…they don’t want the Daesh to attack Israel or Saudi Arabia or any other nations that are US allies in the region, but they do want to use the Daesh as a weapon against” President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

“Americans also view other forces in the region as a means of controlling the Daesh to a point that they are not able to expand into region where the Americans do not want them to go and Kurdistan is one of those,” Preston stated.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned the US that it has to choose between Ankara and the Syrian Kurds.

The US and some regional players, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have been financing and arming various militant groups, including Daesh and al-Qaeda, in Syria.

The foreign-sponsored conflict, which flared up in March 2011, has reportedly killed some 470,000 people and displaced nearly half of the population, according to the Syrian Center for Policy Research.