The FT’s Peter Spiegel looks at the fallout from the president’s move to withdraw the US military from northern Syria and Turkey’s subsequent assault on areas held by Kurdish forces. Read more at
Hurry captain nj all taken possession our shama saying olay optimist la fonda girish maison de ken de sina haricot abacha jamison toledo boo girlish minar dun dun da da da da da ba da american jewry and in cuisine the chaos colony jkg ilana them every worst-case scenario in the region has been fulfilled the concerns were multifold one that the kurdish allies
In the united states what they actually fought isis in northern syria would be overwhelmed and and in some cases slaughtered by the turkish forces that happened there was concerned the russians who have been trying to use syria as a way to re-enter the middle east into the vacuum to replace the united states as a major player in the region that was a fear that’s
Happened and then that that bashar al assad the syrian dictator who was at the verge of falling just a few years ago into the obama ministration that he would be able to reassert his power in the region that’s happened as well because he’s been able to move his forces into northern syria as well so the three worst-case scenarios that the americans had feared in
The region have all happened over the course of the last week with the implementation of the ceasefire the united states will not impose any further sanctions on turkey and once a permanent ceasefire is in effect the president has agreed to withdraw the economic sanctions that were imposed this last monday you have obviously pence and pompeyo flying to ankara to
Meet air don’t want to try to get him to stop what he’s doing now remember this is again just a week after trump himself basis gave air to one a green light to move into northern syria by pulling out american forces in the region and over a phone call basically saying this is up to air21 to deal with that obviously crazed a huge backlash domestically we’ve seen
The democrats in particular there was huge clashes that the oval office between between nancy pelosi and donald trump over this where they just basically blew up at each other but it’s not just the democrats criticizing trump on this you have really the most senior national security republicans who have been allied with trump for a long time really coming after
Him on this mr. president if you don’t understand that isis is coming back you’re missing a lot of good advice if you don’t understand these bastards would kill us all if they could you’re not listening to what they’re saying and if you abandon these kurds that’d be a stain on your presidency and our honor and how do you fix this you lead you tell erlewine i am
Speaking for a nation now i have the backing of the united states congress we will not tolerate this we want a good relationship but you’re destroying it and i have the backing of the united states congress i’ve got the backing of people who want to impeach me and i got the backing of people who are going to defend me we’ve heard word out of ankara that the turks
Are incredibly happy with the deal they’ve done because it has allowed them to create what they’ve always wanted to create which is a base of operations in northern syria a buffer zone quote unquote in which they basically can clear out all kurdish forces regardless of their affiliation the turks have always been in many ways existentially afraid of the kurdish
Threat the pkk the kurdish workers party has been a terrorist organization inside turkey they’ve caused untold damage and death inside turkey the kurds that had worked with the americans in northern syria were not of the pkk they may have been had some overlap but this was a separate organization the americans felt were they were able to work with and did not pose a
Threat to them to the turks the turks obviously felt otherwise and they finally get their ability to clear out any kurdish forces any curtiss operations in northern syria which is exactly what they have wanted for almost no cost there’s nothing that is the americans have were asking for other than the stopping of hostilities trump has said he would stop the sanctions
Against turkey for their operations if they if they are able to allow that kurds to pull out of the region and as a result we’ve also seen you know hundreds if not thousands of isis fighters who were captured in northern syria and were being detained by the kurds a real risk of them coming back to the battlefield and and fighting again for another day and and again
Talk about worst-case scenarios that would be the worst case scenario for the u.s. because of all the blood and treasure used to round up those isis fighters inside syria
Transcribed from video
Syria: How Donald Trump has unleashed every worst case scenario I FT By Financial Times