Trump Lifts Sanctions Against Turkey, Voicing Confidence in Cease-Fire
24 October 2019 - 4:42AM
Dow Jones News
By Vivian Salama and Rebecca Ballhaus
WASHINGTON -- President Trump said he is lifting U.S. sanctions
against Turkey after being assured that the country is permanently
halting an offensive in northern Syria as part of a deal brokered
with Russia.
"Over the last five days, you have seen that a cease-fire that
we established along Syria's border has held and has held very
well," Mr. Trump said at the White House Wednesday.
While Mr. Trump portrayed the outcome as an opportunity to
withdraw U.S. troops and improve stability in northeastern Syria,
critics among both Democrats and Republicans have said it amounts
to the abandonment of Kurdish fighters who have been longtime U.S.
allies and cedes influence over the area to Russia, which is
sending troops into the region.
Mr. Trump said the Turkish government informed his
administration Wednesday that it is stopping combat and making the
cease-fire permanent, adding, "And it will indeed be
permanent."
"So the sanctions will be lifted unless something happens that
we are not happy with," Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump also said he intends to keep a small number of U.S.
troops in northern Syria to protect the oil fields but didn't
provide details. "When we commit American troops to battle we must
do so only when a vital national interest is at stake," he
said.
The president spoke Wednesday with Mazloum Abdi, the commander
of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who said in a Twitter
message posted by a spokesman: "We THANK President Trump for his
tireless efforts that stopped the brutal Turkish attack and
jihadist groups on our people."
He added Mr. Trump promised to maintain a partnership with the
Kurdish-led forces and provide "long-term support at various
spheres," without specifying details of the arrangement.
The sanctions Mr. Trump said he was lifting were imposed earlier
this month by the U.S. Treasury Department against Turkey's
defense, interior and energy ministers and their departments,
coupled with a threat to raise U.S. tariffs on steel imported from
Turkey to 50%.
Days later, Mr. Trump offered to ease those sanctions if Turkey
agreed to halt its assault on Syria.
Mr. Trump credited his administration for the cease-fire, worked
out by Vice President Mike Pence during a trip to Ankara last week
to establish a safe zone.
The U.S.-Turkey cease-fire has been replaced by a new one
negotiated between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting Tuesday in Russia.
Under that cease-fire, Russian forces will help move Kurdish
fighters out of a much larger safe zone along the Turkish-Syrian
border.
Criticism of Mr. Trump's decision to withdraw American troops
continued Wednesday as members of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee questioned the administration's top envoy for matters
related to Syria and the Islamic State.
The envoy, James Jeffrey, faced similar criticism Tuesday from
Democratic and Republican senators who said the move has allowed
Russia to fill the vacuum left across much of northern Syria and
that Mr. Erdogan has achieved his longstanding objectives
concerning Syrian Kurds.
Mr. Jeffrey testified Tuesday that he hadn't been consulted on
Mr. Trump's initial decision to withdraw troops. He also said that
dozens of Islamic State fighters had managed to escape because of
the Turkish intervention and that hundreds of Kurds had been killed
and wounded.
Mr. Trump said Wednesday that some Islamic State detainees being
guarded by Kurdish forces had escaped but that they represented "a
small number relatively speaking, and they've been largely
recaptured."
Rep. Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.), who chairs the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, said Wednesday that Mr. Trump's withdrawal
decision had led to a "stunning defeat" for the U.S.
"It really affects our ability to operate in that part of the
world," he added. "I have been here a long time, and I can hardly
remember a policy that has been as bad as this."
U.S. officials have been scrambling to come up with options to
keep working with the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces in
northeast Syria and to protect the oil fields there. One proposal
calls for keeping up to 300 U.S. special-operations forces there,
who would work with thousands of SDF fighters and be protected by
American air power.
The haste with which the Trump administration made its
withdrawal plans has also cause friction with Iraqi officials, who
have said the U.S. troops that are moving there from Syria should
leave Iraq within four weeks. Defense Secretary Mark Esper
consulted in Baghdad with top Iraqi officials Wednesday.
--Michael R. Gordon contributed to this article.
Write to Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com and Rebecca
Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 23, 2019 13:27 ET (17:27 GMT)
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