Monday, January 7, 2019

Bolton: Kurdish Allies of US Must Be Protected; Turks Won't Attack Them After US Leaves Syria

White House national security adviser John Bolton added a new condition yesterday to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, saying Turkey must agree to protect the United States' Kurdish allies, the Reuters website reports today (January 7, 2019).

President Donald Trump's abrupt decision last month to announce a U.S. pullout from Syria left many questions open, chiefly whether Kurdish fighters who had been operating in northern Syria alongside U.S. forces would be attacked by their long-time enemy, Turkey.

Bolton -- on a trip to Israel and Turkey -- said he would stress in talks with Turkish officials, including President Tayyip Erdogan, that Kurdish forces must be protected in Syria.

Bolton also told reporters the U.S. pullout would be done in a way that guaranteed the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group "is defeated and is not able to revive itself and become a threat again."

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