Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s point man for the Syria crisis warned leaders of the United States not to trust an agreement between Turkey and Russia to implement a “safe zone” in northern Syria.
“I have to be pretty cynical about this agreement,” James Jeffrey, the State Department’s special representative for Syria, said Wednesday during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.
While the diplomat testified, President Trump praised the deal that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unveiled on Tuesday as a “major breakthrough.” Many lawmakers and analysts worry that the agreement has solidified Putin’s status as a major power broker in the Middle East.
“Today’s announcement validates our course of action with Turkey that only a couple of weeks ago was scorned, and now people are saying, ‘Wow, what a great outcome, congratulations,’” Trump said after announcing that he would lift sanctions on Turkey in response to the ceasefire agreement. “It’s too early for me to be congratulated, but we’ve done a good job, we’ve saved a lot of lives.”
Jeffrey, who was not watching the president’s address because it took place during his testimony, contradicted Trump. “They’re not going to accomplish anything good with that agreement, congressman,” he told Rep. Ted Yoho, a Republican lawmaker.
The hearing took place amid congressional worry that a lack of coordination between Trump and his policy team has empowered Russia in the Middle East.
“This is the worst example I’ve seen of what I call this administration’s ‘fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants’ foreign policy,” Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, said at the beginning of the hearing. “How can America be trusted to keep its word when we betray one of our close partners? And how do we handle the threats of ISIS, Iran, and Russia, now that they’ve been handed a remarkable victory by the president of the United States?”
Trump has drawn bipartisan criticism for his decision to remove American troops from the path of Turkish forces that invaded Syria to attack the Syrian Kurdish militias that partnered with the U.S.-led coalition to dismantle the Islamic State. Trump is widely perceived as giving Erdoğan a “green light” for the attack, despite U.S. denials.
“I think the Russians and Assad and Iran are going to fill the vacuum, that’s my opinion,” Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, told Jeffrey.
U.S. officials are mulling how to avoid that outcome. “That’s one reason why we are doing this review,” Jeffrey told McCaul.
