Phone call with Erdogan led to Trump’s surprise Syria decision United States

US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was made hastily, without consulting his national security team or allies, and over strong objections from virtually everyone involved in the fight against the Islamic State group, according to US and Turkish officials.

Trump stunned his cabinet, US lawmakers and much of the world with the move, rejecting the advice of his top aides. He agreed to a withdrawal in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, two US officials and a Turkish official briefed on the matter said.

The December 14 call, described by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, set off a frantic, four-day scramble to convince Trump to either reverse or delay the decision.

The White House rejected the description of the call from the officials but was not specific.

The US State Department and the Pentagon declined to comment on the account of the decision to withdraw the troops, which have been in Syria to fight Isis since 2015.

The December 14 call came a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu agreed to have the two presidents discuss Erdogan’s threats to launch a military operation against US-backed Kurdish rebels in northeast Syria, where American forces are based.

Trump’s national security team had prepared a list of talking points for him to tell Erdogan to back off, the officials said.

But Trump, who had previously accepted such advice and convinced the Turkish leader not to attack the Kurds and put US troops at risk, ignored the script and instead sided with Erdogan.

In the following days, Trump remained unmoved by those scrambling to convince him to reverse or at least delay the decision, to give the military and Kurdish forces time to prepare for an orderly withdrawal.