‘Don’t be a fool!’ Trump tells Erdogan as criticism grows for Syria withdrawal

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Fires designed to decrease visibility for Turkish jets burn on the outskirts of the town of Tal Tamr near the Syrian Kurdish town of Ras Al-Ain along the border with Turkey in the northeastern Hassakeh province. (AFP)
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Turkey-backed Syrian fighters hold a position across from the key Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain on Wednesday. (AFP)
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Turkey-backed Syrian fighters hold a position across from the key Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain on Wednesday. (AFP)
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Smoke billows above the key Syrian border town of Ras Al-Ain on Wednesday. (AFP)
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Turkey-backed Syrian fighters hold a position across from the key Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain on Wednesday. (AFP)
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A picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on October 14, 2019 showing Syrian government forces waving national flags as they enter the northern town of Ain Issa. (File/AFP)
Updated 17 October 2019
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‘Don’t be a fool!’ Trump tells Erdogan as criticism grows for Syria withdrawal

  • The forces were fighting alongside each other in Ain Issa town against Turkish soldiers
  • A monitor says two Syrian soldiers died in shelling by former rebels paid and equipped by Ankara

WASHINGTON/ANKARA: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he did not mind Russia helping Syria in a conflict with NATO ally Turkey and rejected criticism of his withdrawal of US troops from Syria that exposed Kurdish allies, calling it “strategically brilliant.”
In a day of fast-moving events, Trump endured harsh criticism for the withdrawal and lashed out at US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling her a “third-rate” politician during a tense White House meeting after which she accused him of having a “meltdown.”
Trump’s decision to withdraw US forces before a Turkish offensive into northern Syria last week has shattered the relative calm there and he has been accused of abandoning Kurdish militia who helped the United States fight Daesh militants in the region.
The hasty troop exit has created a land rush between Turkey and Russia — now the undisputed foreign powers in the area — to partition the formerly US-protected Kurdish area. It has allowed Syrian President Bashar Assad to redeploy his forces to an area that had been beyond his control for years in the more than eight-year Syrian war.
Syrian troops accompanied by Russian forces entered the city of Kobani, a strategically important border city and a potential flashpoint for a wider conflict, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian war, reported.
Speaking to reporters as he met Italian President Sergio Mattarella and then at a joint news conference, Trump said the Kurds were “not angels” and that it might be necessary for Russian-backed Syria and Turkey to “fight it out.”
“Our soldiers are not in harm’s way — as they shouldn’t be, as two countries fight over land that has nothing to do with us,” Trump said during Oval Office talks with Mattarella where he sounded as if he were washing his hands of the conflict.
He also defended his move to get US troops out as part of his wider effort to bring Americans home from “endless wars,” despite being excoriated by members of his own Republican Party. USofficials say, however, that those troops were expected to be repositioned in the region. Some of them could go to Iraq.
“I viewed the situation on the Turkish border with Syria to be for the United States strategically brilliant,” Trump said.
“Syria may have some help with Russia, and that’s fine. It’s a lot of sand,” he later said. “So you have Syria and you have Turkey. They’re going to argue it out, maybe they’re going to fight it out. But our men aren’t going to get killed over it.”
Acting last week after a phone call on Oct. 6 with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Trump abruptly upended five years of US policy with his decision to withhold protection from Syria’s Kurds and to withdraw first about 50 special operations forces and then the roughly 1,000 US troops in northern Syria.
“This is a mistake worse than what (Barack) Obama did” when the former president withdrew US troops from Iraq in 2011, Republican US Senator Lindsay Graham, usually among Trump’s strongest supporters, told reporters.
The White House, fighting the domestic political damage and perhaps trying to demonstrate the president’s efforts to stop Turkey’s onslaught, released an Oct. 9 Trump letter to Erdogan that said: “Don’t be a tough guy” and “Don’t be a fool!“

SANCTIONS
Washington announced sanctions on Monday to punish Turkey, but Trump’s critics said the steps, mainly a steel tariffs hike and a pause in trade talks, were too feeble to have an impact.
On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said sanctions included the entire ministries of energy and defense and could be broadened to others. Republicans in the US House of Representatives also plan to introduce sanctions legislation.
Trump dispatched some of his top aides, including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Turkey for emergency talks to try to persuade Ankara to halt its assault. Trump said he thought Pence and Erdogan would have a “successful meeting” with Erdogan, saying if they did not, US sanctions and tariffs “will be devastating to Turkey’s economy.”
Erdogan’s spokesman said Turkey’s Foreign Ministry was preparing retaliation for US sanctions.
A White House meeting between Trump, Republican and Democratic lawmakers on US policy in Syria was cut short. Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, said Trump was upset by a 354-60 House vote condemning his Syria withdrawal. Republicans said Pelosi “stormed out.”
“What we witnessed on the part of the president was a meltdown. Sad to say,” Pelosi, whose fellow Democrats are investigating whether to impeach Trump because of his actions toward Ukraine, said upon leaving.
Trump shot back via Twitter on Wednesday night, posting — “Nervous Nancy’s unhinged meltdown!” with a photo of Pelosi standing up and pointing at him during the meeting.
Dozens of Republicans joined the majority Democrats in the House vote. The split underscored deep unhappiness in Congress over Trump’s action, which many lawmakers view as abandoning Kurdish fighters who had been loyally fighting alongside Americans to defeat Islamic State.
Trump has denied giving a green light to Turkey to attack the Syrian Kurds.
Erdogan has insisted there will be no cease-fire, and said he might call off a visit to the United States in November because of the “very big disrespect” shown by US politicians.
He also denounced Washington for taking the “unlawful, ugly step” of imposing criminal charges against a Turkish state bank Halkbank over allegations it broke sanctions on Iran. Washington says the case is unrelated to politics. Halkbank denies wrongdoing.
Turkey’s assault has spawned a humanitarian crisis, with 160,000 civilians taking flight, a security alert over thousands of Islamic State fighters abandoned in Kurdish jails, and a political maelstrom at home for Trump.
Senior Republicans voiced dismay.
“I’m sorry that we are where we are,” the characteristically understated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, telling reporters he hoped Pence and Pompeo “can somehow repair the damage” during their trip to Ankara.
Syrian army forces, backed by Washington’s adversaries Russia and Iran, have exploited the power vacuum left by US troops to advance.
Turkey’s cross-border offensive and the US pullout have brought the two biggest militaries in NATO close to confrontation on the battlefield. The United States has complained about Turkish artillery fire near its troops.
The Syrian Observatory said Russian troops had crossed the Euphrates River to advance to Kobani’s outskirts.
Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV reported that Russian-backed Syrian forces had also set up outposts in Raqqa, the one-time capital of Islamic State’s caliphate, which the Kurds captured in 2017 at the peak of their campaign with US support.
Trump did not object to an agreement cut between Kurdish-led forces and the Syrian government to protect Syria from a Turkish offensive, said Commander Mazloum Kobani of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the Kurdish YPG is the main fighting element.

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Syrian state media: Israel attacked town near Lebanon border

Updated 3 sec ago
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Syrian state media: Israel attacked town near Lebanon border

DAMASCUS: An Israeli strike hit a Syrian town near the border with Lebanon on Tuesday, Syrian state media said, less than a week after deadly strikes on the same area.
“An Israeli aggression targeted the industrial zone in Al-Qusayr” in Homs province, the official SANA news agency said. There was no immediate news of casualties or damage.

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 43,391

Updated 13 min 48 sec ago
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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 43,391

  • The toll includes 17 deaths in the previous 24 hours

GAZA STRIP: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 43,391 people have been killed in the year-old war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 17 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 102,347 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.


Greece says migrant arrivals rising in south-east islands

Updated 38 min 40 sec ago
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Greece says migrant arrivals rising in south-east islands

  • At the end of October, several hundred migrants set up tents and cardboard houses outside the local government offices of the city of Rhodes, sparking anger among residents
  • Rhodes mayor Alexandros Koliadis told Rodiaki that the island lacks the personnel, police officers and coast guard needed to register the arrivals before transferring them to camps

ATHENS: Some islands in the southeast of the Aegean sea, including Rhodes, are seeing an increase in migrants arriving by boat from Turkiye, Greek migration and asylum minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said Tuesday.
“The southeast of the Aegean and the island of Rhodes are experiencing migratory pressure right now,” he said on public television station ERT, though he said the increase does not appear to be linked to rising tensions in the Middle East.
At the end of October, several hundred migrants set up tents and cardboard houses outside the local government offices of the city of Rhodes, sparking anger among residents and local authorities.
According to local media Rodiaki, more than 700 migrants arrived during the last week of October.
Rhodes mayor Alexandros Koliadis told Rodiaki that the island lacks the personnel, police officers and coast guard needed to register the arrivals before transferring them to camps on the mainland or in other islands.
Previously, Aegean islands further north such as Lesbos and Samos had received the brunt of migrants crossing from Turkish shores.
Crete, which has likewise seen an increase in arrivals from Libya, also needs to build facilities to process migrants.
Greece has seen a 25 percent increase this year in the number of people fleeing war and poverty, with a 30 percent increase alone to Rhodes and the south-east Aegean, according to the Migration Ministry.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says 48,158 arrivals have been recorded so far in 2024, of which around 42,000 arrived by boat and 6,000 by crossing the land frontier with Turkiye.
“The camps on the islands have an occupancy rate of 100 percent. But on the mainland they are only 55 percent full, which provides a margin in the event of an increase in arrivals on the islands,” Panagiotopoulos said.


Sudan files AU complaint against Chad over arms: minister

Updated 51 min 17 sec ago
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Sudan files AU complaint against Chad over arms: minister

  • Chad last month denied accusations that it was “amplifying the war in Sudan” by arming the RSF

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s army-backed government on Tuesday accused neighboring Chad of supplying arms to rebel militias, likely referring to the paramilitary forces it is battling.
The northeast African country has been engulfed by war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the regular army, led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Justice minister Muawiya Osman said Burhan’s administration had lodged the complaint against Chad at the African Union.
Speaking to reporters, including AFP, Osman said the government demanded compensation and accused Chad of “supplying arms to rebel militias” and causing “harm to Sudanese citizens.”
“We will present evidence to the relevant authorities,” he added from Port Sudan, where Burhan relocated after fighting spread to the capital, Khartoum.
Chad last month denied accusations that it was “amplifying the war in Sudan” by arming the RSF.
“We do not support any of the factions that are fighting on Sudanese territory — we are in favor of peace,” foreign minister and government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said at the time.
The United Nations has been using the Adre border crossing between the two countries to deliver humanitarian aid.
Sudan had initially agreed to keep the crossing open for three months, a period set to expire on November 15. Authorities in Khartoum have yet to decide whether to extend the arrangement.
The Sudanese war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million, including 3.1 million who are now sheltering beyond the country’s borders.


Explosion at Turkish oil refinery injures 12

Updated 05 November 2024
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Explosion at Turkish oil refinery injures 12

  • The 12 employees sustained slight injuries and were taken to a hospital for examinations

ANKARA: An explosion at an oil refinery in northwestern Turkiye on Tuesday left at least 12 employees slightly injured, the company said. A fire at the facility was quickly brought under control.
The Turkish Petroleum Refineries company, TUPRAS, said a fire broke out at its facilities in Izmit, in Kocaeli province, during maintenance work on a compressor. The company’s emergency teams responded immediately to the incident, it said in a statement.
The 12 employees sustained slight injuries and were taken to a hospital for examinations, the company said.
The company said the unit where the incident occurred “was deactivated in a controlled manner” and that other operations at the refinery were “continuing as normal.”
Earlier, Tahir Buyukakin, the mayor for Kocaeli told private NTV television that the blast occurred during a drill. The fire was quickly brought under control by the company’s own crews and no request for help was made, he said.
Video footage from the site showed smoke rising from the refinery, which is one of Turkiye’s largest. Izmit is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Istanbul.
The Borsa Istanbul stock exchange temporarily halted trading of TUPRAS shares, until the company provides a detailed explanation of the incident.