Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday again tried to distance himself and the U.S. from the unfolding humanitarian crisis in northeastern Syria, telling reporters in the Oval Office, “It’s not our border.”
The comment comes amid a torrent of criticism, including among Republicans, of Trump’s decision to pull back U.S. troops ahead of a Turkish operation against U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces and now to withdraw nearly all American forces from the war-torn country.
Instead, Trump has called for a ceasefire and peace settlement, dispatching Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien to Ankara to meet Turkish officials.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made clear again Wednesday he has no interest in “sitting at a table with a terrorist organization… We’re not looking for a mediator or anything, we don’t need it,” he told Turkish Parliament in a speech.
Erdogan declined to meet with O’Brien, who arrived Wednesday in Ankara and met with Turkey’s foreign minister. On Thursday, Erdogan will meet with Pence and Pompeo, who depart from Washington Wednesday, according to Erdogan’s communications director.
Despite Erdogan’s comments, Trump denied that Erdogan didn’t want a ceasefire, saying while seated next to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, “We’re trying to get Turkey to do the right thing. We want to get wars stopped.”
Turkey launched an offensive against the Syrian Kurdish forces that the U.S. armed and fought alongside against ISIS, but that Turkey considers a terrorist organization. U.S. officials have denied that the administration has abandoned those Kurdish forces, saying the decision to move troops was “tactical” — or what Trump called “strategically brilliant” Wednesday.
While a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. still supports Syrian Kurdish forces and does not consider them terrorists, Trump badmouthed them Wednesday, saying, “They’re not angels.”
“We are not a policing agent. It is time for us to go home,” the president said. While Russian and Syrian forces loyal to dictator Bashar al Assad moved into towns and bases once held by U.S. troops, Trump dismissed concern over it: “If Russia wants to get involved in Syria, that’s really up to them.”
“I view the situation on the Turkish border with Syria to be, for the United States, strategically brilliant,” President Trump says amid bipartisan criticism of his administration’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops https://t.co/G5REIbltay pic.twitter.com/G12ktXO4SX
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 16, 2019
The president was to meet with congressional leaders later Wednesday on the Syria situation — many of them, including prominent Republicans — angry about his handling of the situation.
“It’s too late for this kind of conversation. I mean I’m happy that they’re talking,” he said of the Pompeo-Pence mission. “But my goodness, the lack of preparation and thinking about how we could have transitioned to a setting where we can protect the Kurds and also hopefully meet Turkey’s needs and interests — that’s something we should have considered a long time ago before we pulled our troops out,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Wednesday.
“But now, to go over and say let’s talk to Erdogan is like, ‘Hey guys, you let the horses out of the barn. This is, this is too late to be talking about locking the barn door,” he added.
GOP Sen. Marco Rubio echoed Romney’s exasperation.
“Frankly, I don’t know what we can do at this point to reverse some of the long-term damage,” Rubio said.
Rubio said he fears Erdogan is planning an ethnic cleansing of the Kurds. “This is a really problematic situation that’s unfolding.”
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham also blasted Erdogan for saying sanctions don’t matter and that he will refuse any ceasefire.
“We’re going to sanction that hell out of Turkey. We’re going to break their economy until they leave Syria. This is a defining moment of Trump’s presidency. If we abandon the Kurds, it will be to our shame and our national security detriment and Trump will own the reemergence of ISIS,” Graham said.
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