Trump lifts sanctions on Turkey as Russian troops enter Syria border area
US President Donald Trump yesterday said all US sanctions on Turkey will be lifted after the ceasefire in Ankara’s Syrian offensive.
The announcement came as Russian military forces yesterday crossed the Euphrates river in Syria and took up positions near the border with Turkey under a deal for the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.
Mr Trump said the sanctions will be lifted “unless something happens that I’m not happy with”.
The US president also said that he welcomed other countries’ assistance in the Syria conflict, acknowledging Russia’s agreement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to hold joint patrols.
“Earlier this morning, the government of Turkey informed my administration that they would be stopping combat and their offensive in Syria and making the ceasefire permanent,” he said from the White House. “I have, therefore, instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to lift all sanctions imposed October 14 in response to Turkey’s original offensive moves against the Kurds in Syria’s north-east border region.”
The Russian defence ministry said that a convoy of Russian military police crossed the Euphrates at noon local time and “advanced towards the Syrian-Turkish border”.
Under the deal between Russia and Turkey, Russian military police and Syrian border guards will “facilitate the removal” of Kurdish People’s Protection Units fighters and their weapons from within 30 kilometres of the border.
This withdrawal must be finalised within 150 hours.
The defence ministry published a map showing where 15
Syrian checkpoints would be set up along the border.
News agency RIA Novosti quoted the ministry as saying military police had met officials from the border town of Kobani and were due to start carrying out patrols there.
The Turkey-Russia agreement was reached after marathon talks between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Vladimir Putin in Russia on Tuesday. The deal grants Turkey a safe zone inside Syria about 120km long and 32km deep.
Russia and Turkey will eventually launch joint patrols along the zone.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor in Britain, said it was calm along the safe zone yesterday.
In the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli – excluded from the Sochi agreement – hundreds demonstrated against the deal yesterday, saying it amounted to ethnic cleansing and genocide.
“This deal serves the interests of foreign powers and not the interests of the people,” said Talaat Youndes, an official with the Kurdish administration. “Turkey’s objective is to kill, displace and occupy the Kurds,” he said.
Turkey’s October 9 assault was made possible by a pullback of US troops stationed along the border as a buffer force between their Nato ally Turkey and the Kurdish fighters of the Syrian
Democratic Forces. The withdrawal by their erstwhile ally left the Kurds completely in the lurch, forcing them to turn to the Damascus regime for protection from an expanded Turkish offensive.
Government forces, who are backed by the Russian military, rushed north within days, ostensibly to pin back Turkish-backed rebels but also to reclaim control of territory that the regime began leaving in 2012.
Damascus has previously accused Kurds of treason over their alliance with Washington and repeatedly said it would eventually restore government control over all of Syria.
The Kremlin yesterday accused Washington of betraying the Kurds and leaving them alone in the face of a Turkish offensive.
“The US were the closest allies for the Kurds for several years. In the end the US abandoned the Kurds, effectively betraying them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu yesterday said that Moscow had assured Ankara it would not allow Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime to co-operate with Kurdish fighters. But he ruled out any direct talks with the Syrian regime for now.
Despite being on the opposite sides of the Syria conflict, Turkey and Russia have been working together to find a solution to the war. After Tuesday’s deal, the countries were determined “to combat terrorism in all forms … and to disrupt separatist agendas in Syrian territory”.
Under the terms of the deal, efforts would also be made for the return of refugees to Syria “in a safe and voluntary manner”.
Ankara said some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey can be rehoused in the safe zone.