Trump talks Syria pullout with Turkish president

23 December 2018, 7:11 pm

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US President Donald Trump says he held another conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the removal of US troops from Syria and other subjects.

“We discussed ISIS, our mutual involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area. After many years they are coming home. We also discussed heavily expanded Trade,” Trump says in a tweet.

I just had a long and productive call with President @RT_Erdogan of Turkey. We discussed ISIS, our mutual involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area. After many years they are coming home. We also discussed heavily expanded Trade.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2018

Erdogan reportedly convinced Trump to pullout US troops in a call last week, despite advisers and other allies urging him to stay the course.

The call comes as Turkey has reportedly begun amassing troops in northern Syria, ahead of what many fear will be a bloody operation to push out Kurdish fighters who were allied with the US against the Islamic State.

Turkish and US troops conduct joint patrols around the Syrian town of Manbij, as part of an agreement that aimed to ease tensions between the two NATO allies, November 1, 2018. (Turkish Defence Ministry via AP, Pool)

It also comes as Erdogan and Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu have been involved in a two-day Twitter spat, with each leveling harsh accusations against the other.