Turkey agreed to end its military operations in northeast Syria for five days so Kurdish fighters can leave the area.
What We Know:
- Mike Pence revealed this information on Thursday. This left a lot of questions regarding whether Turkey is submitting to the US or if it’s just a tactical strategy. This was due to the recent recalling of US troops from northern Syria.
- Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, stated that this is simply a “pause” not a ceasefire and that the US accepted Turkey’s security interest. “It is fully agreed that the safe zone will be under the control of the Turkish Armed Forces,” he said. “Giving a break does not mean to withdraw our forces,” he said. “We will go on being there.”
- There is still no direct statement on whether the Kurds would even agree to move out of Syria. The Kurds have fought with the US against ISIS, this pullback is a complete betrayal of our ally.
- Trump went on to praise the deal over Twitter, trying to regain support after mostly bipartisan agreement in the house condemning the president’s actions.
This deal could NEVER have been made 3 days ago. There needed to be some “tough” love in order to get it done. Great for everybody. Proud of all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2019
It seems that Trump will leave some troops in Syria, according to Vox.
