BICOM

US National Security Adviser John Bolton will meet Turkish officials today after saying the US withdrawal from Syria would depend on Turkey not attacking US-backed Kurdish allies.

During his visit to Israel on Sunday and Monday, Bolton said: “We do not think the Turks ought to undertake military action that is not fully co-ordinated with and agreed to by the United States at a minimum so they do not endanger our troops, but also so that they meet the president’s requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered.”

On Monday, US President Donald Trump tweeted: “No different from my original statements, we will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, sharply criticised Bolton for saying Turkey must not attack Kurdish forces who have fought with the US against ISIS. He said Kurdish forces were “terrorists” that “cannot be an ally of the US”.

Writing in the New York Times, President Erdoğan said the US’s decision to withdraw from Syria “must be planned carefully and performed in cooperation with the right partners to protect the interests of the US, the international community and the Syrian people. Turkey, which has NATO’s second largest standing army, is the only country with the power and commitment to perform that task.”

Erdoğan also warned that the international community should avoid making the same mistakes in Syria as in Iraq. “The lesson of Iraq, where this terrorist group (ISIL) was born, is that premature declarations of victory and the reckless actions they tend to spur create more problems than they solve,” he wrote. “The first step is to create a stabilisation force featuring fighters from all parts of Syrian society. Only a diverse body can serve all Syrian citizens and bring law and order to various parts of the country.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo begins a Middle East tour today that includes Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait. He is due to give a speech in Cairo that will reportedly focus on Iran’s role as a “dangerous actor” in the region.

In an interview with CNBC yesterday, Pompeo said that one aim for the trip is to build a global coalition of countries, including Israel and the Gulf states, who believe Iran must cease acting as a state sponsor of terrorism.