President Trump reacted to news of an apparent cease-fire between Turkey and Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
Vice President Mike Pence announced Thursday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had agreed to a cease-fire after meeting with him and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pence said that Turkey had agreed to stop its military offensive in Syria for 120 hours and the Kurds had agreed to pull back from an approximately 20-mile “safe zone.” The vice president said that pending the withdrawal, Turkey would halt its operation entirely.
“This is an amazing outcome,” Trump told reporters outside of Air Force One. “You would have lost millions and millions of lives. They couldn’t get it without a little rough love, as I called it … they needed a little bit of that at the beginning.
“When those guns start shooting, they tend to do things, but I will tell you, on behalf of the United States I want to thank Turkey, I want to thank all of the people that have gotten together and made this happen. This is an incredible outcome,” Trump added.
Trump appeared, at least in part, to justify Turkey’s military incursion in Syria, which targeted Kurdish forces that helped America fight back ISIS and defeat its territorial caliphate.
“So you have a 22-mile strip that for many, many years Turkey, in all fairness, they’ve had a legitimate problem with it,” Trump said. “They had terrorists — they had a lot of people in there that they couldn’t have. They’ve suffered a lot of loss of lives also. And they had to have it cleaned out.”
Trump said after the cease-fire is successfully implemented, the U.S. would lift sanctions that it recently imposed against the Turkish economy. He also thanked both the Kurds and Erdoğan.
“I want to thank the Kurds, because they were incredibly happy with this solution. This is a solution that really — well it saved their lives, frankly. It saved their lives,” Trump said. “I just want to thank and congratulate President Erdoğan. He’s a friend of mine, and I’m glad we didn’t have a problem. Frankly, he’s a hell of a leader. And he’s a tough man, he’s a strong man.”
[Read more: Mitt Romney on Turkey cease-fire: ‘American honor has already been tarnished’]
