‘Not a cease-fire’: How the Trump administration ‘capitulated’ to Turkey
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Analysis: The Trump administration’s deal with Turkey is being framed in foreign policy circles as a capitulation to Ankara and a further gift for Damascus and Moscow.
President Donald Trump presented Thursday’s U.S.-brokered deal with Turkey — which despite sporadic gunfire has paused fighting in northeast Syria — as “a great day for civilization.”
But in foreign policy circles it is being widely framed as a capitulation to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a further gift to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
[Pompeo & Pence] appeared to have handed Erdogan an emphatic victory by agreeing to his so-called safe-zone — a demilitarized area along Syria’s border where Turkey wants refugees to live and which has been a longstanding Erdogan objective.
The implications for America’s standing on the world stage remain unclear but the blow to its reputation as a power that defends its allies is likely to be significant.
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