–Lifting Sanctions on Turkey; May See Erdogan at White House
WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – President Trump Wednesday morning said the situation at the Turkey border, with Russia replacing the U.S. as peacekeeper, is exactly what he wanted, praising Turkey’s leader and saying he has been thanked by the Kurdish leadership.
“This was an outcome created by us, the United States, and no other nation,” Trump said in a statement delivered to the cameras. No American blood was spilled, the Kurds “are safe” and ISIS prisoners who escaped were few and will soon be recaptured.
Other reports from the region were that a considerable number of ISIS fighters escaped. Having Russia, an ally of Syria’s leader, now jointly patrolling a buffer zone with Turkish forces from which Kurdish fighters and their families were expelled, has not been considered to be the optimal outcome by both many Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill.
The Senate, with the endorsement of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is debating a non-binding resolution rebuking Trump for removing the U.S. troops restraining Turkey and asking Turkey to withdraw, a companion measure to one passed with overwhelming support in the House last week.
Trump criticized his predecessor for placing troops in Syria and pledged that no longer will American force be used unless there is a distinct national interest involved, which he has said does not exist in the Mideast, contrary to decades of American policy.
“Other countries have stepped forward. They want to help,” Trump said, apparently referring to Russia. “We think that’s great,” he said.
“The nations in the area must ultimately take on the responsibility of helping Turkey and Syria police their border,” he continued. “We have secured the oil and therefore a small number of U.S troops will remain in the area where they have the oil and we’re going to be protecting it and we’ll be deciding what we’re going to be doing with it in the future.”
Trump has been criticized for protecting the oil but not protecting the Kurds, who fought with U.S. troops, and who wanted to remain in the area being claimed by Turkey as a buffer zone into which it wants to resettle Syrian refugees.
“We have done a great job for all of them and now we’re getting out,” Trump said.
Trump said a Kurdish general called to thank him for saving many lives of the Kurds, who were given no choice but to leave or stay and be killed.
Despite the call on Capitol Hill for Trump’s invitation to Erdogan to be withdrawn, Trump said he may be seeing the Turkish leader soon.
What many in both parties viewed as a haphazard and reckless spur-of-the-moment withdrawal of a few U.S. troops who were standing between the Turks and the Kurds, Trump said is a “major breakthrough” that savings “countless thousands of lives.”
Trump leaves in the early afternoon for a trip to Pittsburgh.
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Contact this reporter at: denny@macenews.com
(Photo credit: Shealah Craighead, The White House)