U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that US forces would withdraw from northern Syria and that sanctions against Turkey would be lifted, saying Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was doing the right thing. Regarding his country.
Speaking to the press at the White House, Trump said the ceasefire on the Syrian-Turkish border is holding, saying that Turkey, Syria and the rest of the region must work to ensure that the Islamic State terrorist group does not reappear. They escaped, "but most of them were later arrested."
In his speech, Trump said Turkey had declared a cessation of hostilities in northern Syria into a permanent ceasefire, prompting the United States to lift the sanctions it recently imposed on Turkish imports in response to its military operation.
The US president said he directed the secretary of state to lift all sanctions imposed on Turkey after the start of the attack in northern Syria, adding: "We saved many lives and avoided military intervention in northern Syria."
Trump said the Turkish government had told him that it would stop its offensive against Kurdish positions in northern Syria permanently, noting that Washington would lift sanctions imposed on Ankara after the start of the offensive.
He said: "Turkey has informed us that it will stop the attack in northern Syria, and that the ceasefire will become permanent. I directed the Foreign Minister to lift all the sanctions imposed on Turkey after the start of the attack."
Trump confirmed that US forces would withdraw from northern Syria, noting that "a few of them will remain to protect the oil wells, and we will decide later what to do with oil."
Trump warned Turkey, "If Turkey does not comply with its pledges to protect religious and ethnic minorities, we will reimpose our economic sanctions as well as import duties."
"The former administration that said Assad should leave has missed the opportunity to achieve the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad," Trump said. Syrian government forces for chemical weapons, he said.
"I responded to such things, and I used 58 Tomahawk missiles."
Trump did not mention the Russian-Turkish agreement on Syria signed in the Russian city of Sochi between Russian President Yutin and his Turkish counterpart Erdogan on Tuesday, 22/10/2019.
