The US won’t fight fellow NATO member Turkey over the Kurds in Syria, President Donald Trump has said, while also suggesting the Kurds may be releasing terrorist prisoners just to get the US involved.
In early Monday tweets, Trump defended his decision to hastily pull American troops and negotiators from the north of Syria, where a Turkish military operation against Kurdish fighters is in full swing.
Still, Trump doesn’t think these allies are worth fighting another NATO member over. “Do people really think we should go to war with NATO Member Turkey?” he tweeted, repeating the threat of “big sanctions on Turkey.”
Trump’s critics have called the move a betrayal of the Kurds, who up to recently had been America’s principal allies on the ground in Syria.
Kurdish leaders have now turned to Damascus, striking a deal that will see Syrian government troops deployed to the area.