Pompeo arrive in Turkey for talks on Syria ceasefire

DPA, 17TH OCTOBER, 2019 -

US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Ankara on Thursday for difficult negotiations in their push for a ceasefire in north-eastern Syria.

Both of them will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has so far rejected any attempts to broker a truce and has said that Turkey is not worried about sanctions.

Pence, on his first visit to Turkey as vice president, landed hours after President Donald Trump sought to distance himself from the conflict between Turkey and Syrian Kurdish militias saying it has “nothing to do with us.”

Trump also said the Kurdish fighters, Washington’s main ally in the battle against Islamic State, were “no angels,” and warned Ankara of further sanctions if there is no ceasefire.

Erdogan has made clear that Turkey would not negotiate with Syrian Kurdish militias.

If Thursday’s meetings between the delegations are unsuccessful then “the sanctions and tariffs and other things that we are doing, we

Erdogan has made clear that Turkey would not negotiate with Syrian Kurdish militias

will do and are doing to Turkey, will be devastating to Turkey’s economy,” Trump said.

Trump’s decision to pull back US troops from north-eastern Syria last week and abandon its Syrian Kurdish partners paved the way for Turkey’s incursion on October 9.

Under intense criticism at home over his decision, Trump on Wednesday referred to a letter he sent Erdogan as evidence of his tough line on Turkey, saying, “I gave it to him - President Erdogan.”

In that letter, leaked to US media on Wednesday and reportedly verified by the White House, Trump wrote: “History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen.”