US left Syria after defeating Islamic State: Trump

Washington, October 11

The United States has three options in Syria--send in thousands of troops and win militarily, hit Turkey very hard financially with sanctions or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds--US President Donald Trump said asserting that American troops left the region only after defeating the Islamic State.

“We defeated 100 per cent of the ISIS caliphate and no longer have any troops in the area under attack by Turkey in Syria. We did our job perfectly! Now Turkey is attacking the Kurds, who have been fighting each other for 200 years,” Trump said in a tweet on Thursday night.

In another tweet, he said the US had three choices.

“Send in thousands of troops and win militarily, hit Turkey very hard financially and with sanctions, or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds,” he said.

Later, he told reporters that the third one would be his preferred option.

“Perhaps the last one, I hope. I hope the last one. Of the three, I hope it’s going to be the last one,” he said, adding that sending the troops again would be their last option. 

“The last thing I want to do is bring thousands and thousands of soldiers in and defeat everybody again. We’ve already done that,” he said.

“So what we have is really two choices: You have the choice of bringing in the military and defeating everybody again, or you have the choice of financially doing some very strong things to Turkey,” Trump said, adding that they hoped to mediate.

Refraining from answering directly to the question if Turkey had gone beyond the limits he had set up so far, Trump said the Turks knew where he stood.

“We had a big victory. We left the area. I don’t think the American people want to see us go back in with our military,” he said, adding that the US might take some tough measures.

“I don’t think we want to go back in. Let’s see what happens. We are possibly going to do something very, very tough with respect to sanctions and other financial things,” Trump said. PTI