“Thank you to Erdogan,” Trump said. “Millions of lives will be saved!”
“Today the United States and Turkey have agreed to a ceasefire in Syria,” Pence told a news conference after more than four hours of talks at the presidential palace in Ankara.
“The Turkish side will pause Operation Peace Spring in order to allow for the withdrawal of YPG forces from the safe zone for 120 hours,” Pence said. “All military operations under Operation Peace Spring will be paused, and Operation Peace Spring will be halted entirely on completion of the withdrawal.”
The deal struck with Erdogan also provided for Turkey not to engage in military operations in the flashpoint Syrian border town of Kobani, Pence said. Cavusoglu said Turkey had given no commitments about Kobani.
US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey said the agreement covered central northeastern Syria and Turkey was in separate talks with the Russians and the Syrians about other parts of the region.
“We have a very (convoluted) situation with Russian, Syrian Army, Turkish, American, SDF and some Daesh (Islamic State) elements all floating around in a very wild way,” he told pool reporters as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Tel Aviv from Ankara.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican, said the agreement “is far from a victory” and demanded the administration explain what will happen to the Kurds, what will be the future US role in the region and why Turkey “will face no apparent consequences.”
“What President Trump agreed to today is a capitulation to Turkey at the expense of our Kurdish allies,” Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, said in a statement, saying “the agreement lets Turkey off the hook for slaughtering innocent civilians.”
The Turkish assault has created a new humanitarian crisis in Syria with 200,000 civilians taking flight, a security alert over thousands of Islamic State fighters potentially abandoned in Kurdish jails, and a political maelstrom at home for Trump.
The Turkish assault began on Oct. 9 after Trump moved US troops out of the way after an Oct. 6 phone call with Erdogan. Trump announced sanctions on Turkey on Monday, after the assault began, but critics said these were too little, too late.
Pence said the sanctions would be lifted once the ceasefire became permanent.
If successful, the deal could smooth over a major rift between Washington and Turkey, the only Muslim NATO ally.
But the US withdrawal also leaves US adversaries Russia and Iran in a far stronger position in Syria. The Kurds responded to the US withdrawal by effectively switching allegiances and inviting Syrian government forces, backed by Moscow and Tehran, into towns and cities in areas they control.
“The United States essentially agreed to everything Turkey was seeking: a green light to invade, the creation of a huge ‘safe zone’ that Kurdish fighters have to leave, and the end of Kurdish autonomy,” said Phil Gordon, an Obama administration official now at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Deeply damaging to US credibility, not just because Trump betrayed the Kurds but because it once again makes Trump look like a paper tiger: after all his big threats to Turkey he gave it everything it wanted for almost nothing in return,” Gordon said.