In what may well have been the shortest duration of sanctions in modern history, President Trump on Oct. 23 lifted all of the sanctions he had imposed on Turkey just nine days earlier for “escalating violence, endangering innocent civilians, and destabilizing the region” with its military incursion into northeast Syria.

In his statement, Trump referred to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as “a man I’ve gotten to know very well, and a man who loves his country.” Trump then added, “In his mind, he’s doing the right thing for his country.” And now, Trump says, the two men “may be meeting in the very near future.”