USA TODAY International Edition
Pence going to Turkey to demand a cease- fire
Turkey pressed on with its incursions into Syria on Tuesday despite the Trump administration’s demands for an immediate cease- fire and the United States’ imposition of biting economic sanctions on its NATO ally, along with a threat to punish individual Turkish officials.
President Donald Trump made the demands Monday in a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
At the White House on Tuesday, Trump said Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would travel to Ankara on Wednesday to press Erdogan for a cease- fire.
“We’ll be having very strong talks with a lot of people,” Trump said during an unrelated event in the Rose Garden. On his decision to withdraw from Syria, Trump said the U. S. military was “not a police force.”
A senior Trump administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that Pence and others would use the threat of additional U. S. sanctions as leverage in the coming talks.
Trump ordered all U. S. troops to withdraw from northeastern Syria over the weekend. On Monday, he said about 1,000 of those ordered to leave Syria will remain in the Middle East to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.
Erdogan has not responded to cease- fire demands or the sanctions.
The sanctions raised steel tariffs on Turkey, and Trump also put a freeze on trade negotiations with Ankara.
Lawmakers have decried the decision to withdraw forces from Syria in the face of Turkey’s threat to attack the Kurds, who have been key U. S. allies.