President Trump will make an announcement on Wednesday about the implementation of a safe zone in northern Syria, where Turkish fighters had led an offensive against Kurdish forces.
Turkish-backed fighters entered Syria after Trump abruptly announced on Oct. 6 that the U.S. troops would be pulling its troops from the region. That decision - and the subsequent violence that followed - drew bipartisan condemnation from U.S. lawmakers.
Trump's statement comes after a deal was reached on Tuesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The agreement calls for the withdrawal of Syrian Kurdish forces from the Turkish border and then joint military patrols of the area now occupied by the Kurdish military.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had accused Trump of abandoning Kurdish forces, who were key allies in the U.S. fight against ISIS. Turkey argues that the Kurdish fighters are terrorists. Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
