US makes way for Turkish push against Syria’s Kurds

Trump says it’s time for America to get out of wars that are ‘ridiculous’, ‘endless’ and ‘tribal’

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday defended his decision to endorse an impending Turkish military operation against American-backed Kurdish forces in Syria, arguing that it’s time for Washington to “get out of ridiculous endless wars” many of which are “tribal”.

In a major shift in US policy towards Syria, the White House on Monday said Turkey will soon be carrying out its “long-planned operation” in northern Syria and the US will not participate in the operation - with or against - and that American troops will leave the area. The statement came after Trump spoke with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The US has 1,000 troops in northern Syria of which 100-150 are in the Syria-Turkey border areas that will be hit by a Turkish invasion. They were being removed ahead of the fighting, according to reports.

As criticism mounted of the US abandoning the allied Syrian Kurds Trump defended the decision in a stream of tweets, saying the US had gone into Syria for “30 days, that was many years ago”, and had stayed and went “deeper and deeper into battle with no aim in sight”.

It’s time, Trump said, “for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home”.

The SDF, as the Syrian Kurdish forces are called, vowed to defend themselves.

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, called the pullout decision a “disaster in the making”.

Nikki Haley, former US envoy to the UN, commented, “The Kurds were instrumental in our successful fight against ISIS in Syria. Leaving them to die is a big mistake.”

PENTAGON AGAINST TURKISH OPERATION

The Pentagon said on Monday the US does not endorse a threatened Turkish military invasion of northern Syria, and cautioned that such a move risked destabilising the region.

US defense secretary Mark Esper and joint chiefs chairman Mark Milley told their counterparts in Ankara that “unilateral action creates risks for Turkey”, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.