Turkey gets deal on Syria
Troop exit, mixed signals relegate US to sidelines
A deal reached by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan allows Turkey to keep its troops in areas in northeastern Syria it seized Oct. 9.
WASHINGTON – Russia and Turkey agreed Tuesday to take joint control of a vital strip of territory along the Syria-Turkey border as the U.S. military continued to withdraw from Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, struck the deal shortly before the expiration of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that had temporarily halted a Turkish attack on Kurdish forces in Syria.
That deal gives Russia a critical foothold in the Middle East, amid a power vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal. Under the agreement, Putin and Erdogan agreed to work together to remove Kurdish fighters from a 20-mile zone in northern Syria.
Kurdish forces had controlled that territory in northeastern Syria until two weeks ago, when Turkey invaded and began pushing them south. Under the U.S.-brokered cease-fire that expired Tuesday, the Kurdish fighters agreed to pull back deeper into Syria, and Turkey agreed to stop its assault.
Earlier on Tuesday, Erdogan said that 1,300 Syrian Kurdish fighters had yet to vacate a stretch of the border, as required under the deal.
Erdogan warned that if the Kurdish fighters do not withdraw, “our offensive will continue from where it left off, with a much greater determination.”
“There is no place for the (Kurdish fighters) in Syria’s future. We hope that with Russia’s cooperation, we will rid the region of separatist terror,” he said.
The developments unfolded as Trump faced mounting blowback on Capitol Hill over his decision earlier this month to withdraw U.S. troops from northeastern Syria. Critics say that move gave Erdogan a green light to invade Syria and attack the Kurds. Turkey views the Kurds in Syria as terrorists.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a resolution that urges Trump to stop the U.S. military withdrawal from Syria and calls on the president to “rethink” his invitation to Erdogan to visit the White House.
“It recognizes the grave consequences of U.S. withdrawal, the rising influence of Russia, Iran and the Assad regime, and the escape of more than 100 ISIS-affiliated fighters detained in the region,” McConnell said in a Senate floor speech Tuesday. “We specifically urge the president to end the drawdown” in Syria.
On Tuesday, Trump’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said “some progress has certainly been made” to stop the Turkey-Kurdish conflict but conceded that the outcome remained unclear.
“The success of the outcome there is not yet fully determined,” Pompeo told the conservative Heritage Foundation. He did not say what the Trump administration would do to keep the cease-fire in place.
McConnell did not say when the Senate would vote on his nonbinding resolution.