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Trump Officials Press for a Cease-Fire After Turkish Incursion in Syria
Pence Announces Cease-Fire After Turkish Incursion in Syria
(about 3 hours later)
ANKARA, Turkey — Top Trump administration officials tried on Thursday to persuade Turkey’s president to accept a cease-fire in northern Syria, a position he had already rejected even before they departed Washington, as a Turkish offensive against American-allied Kurdish fighters threatened to fuel Syria’s long civil war.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s president agreed to halt his military invasion of northeast Syria on Thursday, following hours of negotiations with two top Trump administration officials, to allow Kurdish fighters to leave the area and avoid, for now, a onslaught that had threatened to prolong Syria’s civil war.
Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Ankara, the capital, amid reports that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had launched the invasion after being warned in a letter by President Trump to not “be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!”
The cease-fire would last for five days, Vice President Mike Pence announced in Ankara after meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey for more than four hours.
On their way to a midafternoon meeting with Mr. Erdogan, Mr. Pence and Mr. Pompeo ignored questions from reporters over whether the letter would make their diplomacy on an already-delicate matter more difficult.
Mr. Pence cited a “strong relationship” between the United States and Turkey, two longtime NATO allies that had gridlocked over which terror threat in northeast Syria — the Islamic State or a Kurdish separatist group — posed an immediate problem.
The letter was dated Oct. 9, the same day that a Turkish military operation began against Syrian Kurdish fighters who had partnered with American troops against the Islamic State.
“Today, we have agreed to a cease-fire in Syria,” Mr. Pence said, noting that there would be a five-day pause in military operations while the United States facilitated the withdrawal of YPG from affected areas in the safe zone.
“Let’s work out a good deal!” Mr. Trump wrote to Mr. Erdogan. “You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy — and I will.”
“Once that is completed, Turkey has agreed to a permanent cease-fire,” Mr. Pence said.
“Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!” Mr. Trump’s letter concluded.
In return, he said, President Trump agreed not to impose any further sanctions on Turkey, and to remove the economic sanctions that were imposed on Turkey last week once the permanent cease-fire took place.
As the meetings in Ankara unfolded, Mr. Trump’s letter was greeted quizzically by other nations with stakes in Syria’s stability. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov told reporters that it was rare to “encounter such language in correspondence between heads of state.”
Kurdish fighters now have 120 hours to leave a safe zone reaching about 20 miles south of Turkey’s border with Syria, Mr. Pence said. He said that while the Trump administration did not agree with Mr. Erdogan’s invasion, American officials also understood Turkey’s concerns about the Kurdish fighters, whom they regard as part of a terror group.
“It’s a highly unusual letter,” Mr. Peskov said, according to Reuters.
The agreement “ends the violence — which is what President Trump sent us here to do,” Mr. Pence said.
The new front in the eight-year civil war drew the forces of President Bashar al-Assad to the Kurds’ defense, pitting them against Turkish troops who are backed by Syrian Arab rebels.
Mr. Trump hailed the announcement as a diplomatic victory. “Great news out of Turkey,” he wrote on Twitter, minutes before Mr. Pence and Mr. Pompeo were scheduled to hold a news conference. “Thank you to @RTErdogan. Millions of lives will be saved!”
Syria will respond to a Turkish aggression on any part of its territory with “all legitimate means” available, President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday, according to state media. The comments came after an agreement between Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to fend off an assault launched by Turkey on northeastern Syria last week.
Russia has been one of Mr. Assad’s strongest supporters in the Syrian civil war. But President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia also has maintained cordial relations with Turkey, including selling Mr. Erdogan’s government a missile defense system that American officials said risks the security of NATO-supplied weapons. The United States and Turkey are NATO members.
It was not clear what could be achieved in Ankara on Thursday as other administration officials expressed concern about a meeting potentially amounting to a too little, too late effort with Mr. Erdogan.
Mr. Pence embarked on the mission at Mr. Trump’s request, scrambling to change his schedule. He initially had planned to travel to Wisconsin to promote the administration’s revised North American trade deal this week.
On the flight to Ankara, Mr. Pence was still preparing and talking by phone with Mr. Trump and other administration officials ahead of a scheduled one-on-one meeting with Mr. Erdogan.
The meeting lasted more than an hour on Thursday. Mr. Pence was expected to relay Mr. Trump’s intentions, his expectations of how an American ally and a NATO partner conducts itself, and what next steps, in terms of sanctions, Turkey could expect if it did not agree to a cease-fire.
Mr. Pompeo was expected to join Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Pence at a follow-up discussion. State Department officials said his role was to support Mr. Pence — making clear that the vice president was in charge of the diplomatic effort.
It appeared unlikely the two American leaders would return to Washington with a cease-fire agreement in hand: Mr. Erdogan rejected calls for one as Mr. Pence’s visit was announced.
The stakes were particularly high for Mr. Pence. He flew halfway across the globe with the goal of pressing Mr. Erdogan into a cease-fire, even as Mr. Trump appeared to undercut his mission by declaring that the Turkish offensive against Kurds, longtime American allies, “has nothing to do with us.”
