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Turkish president Recep Erdogan received his New Year's present from US president Trump a bit early last month, when the latter announced the US withdrawal from Syria. This basically gave Erdogan a blank check to spread his control over Syrian territories east of the Euphrates.
The information first leaked on some US media citing White House sources, and then it was officially confirmed by Trump himself in his fave way, a boast on Twitter:
"We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency."
A bit later, he also released a video where he was praising the "historic victories" over ISIS, achieved by the "great young people" who were about to return home. This was followed by a series of re-tweets of Trump praise that he had heard on Fox News. Then his speaker Sarah Sanders didn't help make things any clearer, as she claimed the US had defeated the "territorial Caliphate", and was entering the "second stage of the campaign", while the victories against ISIS in Syria were "not a signal for disbanding the global coalition and ending its campaign".
WH sources have told Reuters that the evacuation of the US Department of State staff from East Syria had already begun, and the military withdrawal would take 60-100 days. Others have alleged this could happen even faster. Officially, the US military presence in Syria numbers about 2000, but recent WaPo reveals show that it could actually be double that.
( Read more... )
The information first leaked on some US media citing White House sources, and then it was officially confirmed by Trump himself in his fave way, a boast on Twitter:
"We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency."
A bit later, he also released a video where he was praising the "historic victories" over ISIS, achieved by the "great young people" who were about to return home. This was followed by a series of re-tweets of Trump praise that he had heard on Fox News. Then his speaker Sarah Sanders didn't help make things any clearer, as she claimed the US had defeated the "territorial Caliphate", and was entering the "second stage of the campaign", while the victories against ISIS in Syria were "not a signal for disbanding the global coalition and ending its campaign".
WH sources have told Reuters that the evacuation of the US Department of State staff from East Syria had already begun, and the military withdrawal would take 60-100 days. Others have alleged this could happen even faster. Officially, the US military presence in Syria numbers about 2000, but recent WaPo reveals show that it could actually be double that.
( Read more... )
