Turkey
“The troop commitment in northeastern Syria was immensely helpful to U.S. security and U.S. interests,” he continued. “Terrorists groups, as you know, after you defeat them on the physical battlefield, they just don’t go away,” said former U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.
Turkish forces seize targets in Syria during second day of offensive
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: “From the hour the operation started, 109 terrorists have been killed. ... Our operation is ongoing.”
The Trump administration said that 50 to 100 U.S. special forces troops would withdraw from northeastern Syria; however, the United States isn’t entirely withdrawing from the country.
‘Trump’s withdrawal from Syria is a betrayal of our allies and a boon to our adversaries. It’s not ‘America First’ in any respect. Rather, it’s an ‘Iran and Russia First’ policy,’ ” said Jewish Democratic Council of America chairman Ron Klein, a former Florida Democratic congressman.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of northern Syria will contribute to a regional power vacuum that Islamists, both Sunni and Shi’ite, will promptly look to fill.
In an agreement between Turkey and the United States, joint U.S and Turkish ground and air patrols had created a security area that spans more than 78 miles along the Syria-Turkey border.
After years of inaction, Israel’s Foreign Ministry is drawing up a plan to stop Ankara’s efforts to undermine Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.
“You that brutally oppress the Turkish people, slaughter the Kurdish minority and support the terror organization Hamas, you are the last one that can lecture Israel. You are not the sultan, and Turkey is not the Ottoman Empire. Shame on you,” said Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the speech, saying, “He who does not stop lying about Israel, who slaughters the Kurds in his country, and who denies the awful massacre of the Armenian people should not preach to Israel.”
Report: Turkish Foreign Ministry says Organization for Islamic Cooperation will hold an extraordinary session in in Saudi Arabia to discuss Netanyahu’s announcement last week regarding Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley.
“Jerusalem should not upset the applecart with regards to Ankara, and it should preserve the possibility of returning relations to their previous state of a strong military alliance,” said Ofer Israeli, an expert on foreign-policy at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper: Any unilateral action against Syria by Turkey is “unacceptable” and would be stopped.
