Trump touts Turkey ceasefire, even as it appears shaky

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump punched back Friday at criticism that his Syria withdrawal is damaging U.S. credibility, betraying Kurdish allies and opening the door for a possible resurgence of the Islamic State. He touted a ceasefire agreement that seemed at risk as Turkey and Kurdish fighters differed over what it required and whether combat had halted.

“We’ve had tremendous success I think over the last couple of days,” Trump declared. He added that “we’ve taken control of the oil in the Middle East” — a claim that seemed disconnected from any known development there.

He made the assertion twice Friday, but other U.S. officials were unable to explain what he meant.

Calling his Syria approach “a little bit unconventional,” the president contended that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as the Syrian Kurdish fighters the Turks are battling agree that the U.S.brokered casefire was the right step and were complying with it.

That optimism seemed at odds with Erdogan’s own words. He told reporters in Istanbul that Turkish forces would resume their offensive in four days unless Kurdishled fighters withdraw “without exception” from a socalled safe zone 20 miles (deep in Syria running the entire 260mile length of the border with Turkey.

There was no sign of any pullout by the Kurdishled forces, who accused Turkey of violating the ceasefire with continued fighting at a key border town.

They also said the accord covers a much smaller section of the border. And some fighters have vowed not to withdraw at all, dismissing the deal as a betrayal by the U.S., whose soldiers they have fought alongside against the IS.

AFP via Getty Images A Syrian government soldier holds up a portrait of President Bashar alAssad as he waves a Syrian national flag while another prepares to remove a Kurdish People’s Protection Units yellow flag, atop an electrical pole by the Turkish border in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane on Friday. Kobane is a highly symbolic town for Syria’s Kurds, whose forces had in 2015 wrested the town from Islamic State group control in a battle backed by the USled coalition.