“Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into northern Syria,” the White House press secretary said in a statement.
“The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial Caliphate, will no longer be in the immediate area.”
The statement added that “Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years”, as France, Germany and other European nations that they had come from had refused US requests to take them back.
Mr Erdogan and Mr Trump discussed Turkey’s plans to establish a “safe zone” east of the Euphrates River in Syria.
Mr Erdogan also reiterated the necessity of the safe zone to eliminate the threats from the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation, and to create the conditions necessary for the return of Syrian refugees, it said.
The Turkish presidency said after the phone call that Mr Erdogan and Mr Trump had agreed to meet in Washington next mo
