Despite President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American ground forces from Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, known by its acronym SDF, continue to battle the Islamic State in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. Backed by air strikes of the U.S.-led coalition, the SDF conquered yesterday yet another village from the Islamic State, forcing the extreme Muslim group to retreat into its remaining 15 square-kilometers-of-land, which is equal to less than six-square-miles. The continued resolve by the pre-dominantly Kurdish SDF alliance to eradicate the Islamic State from eastern Syria, and the growing demand by U.S. lawmakers not to abandon the U.S. backed forces amid threats by Turkey to launch a wide-scale military operation against them, prompted President Donald Trump to warn Ankara against its voiced intentions. In a tweet the American President made on Sunday, he announced the start of the “long overdue pullout from Syria” while threatening to “devastate Turkey economically” if they would attack the Kurdish militias. Trump’s threat immediately caused Turkey’s Lira to slide as much as 1.6 percent against the U.S. dollar. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who vowed to launch a military operation regardless of American demands, immediately sought to alleviate tensions with Washington, in what a Turkish source told TV7: “aimed to avoid a de-ja-vu from last year’s diplomatic crisis between the two countries that pushed the Turkish Lira to a record low after the U.S. imposed sanctions on two Turkish ministers and raised tariffs on Turkish metal exports.” In an address to his ruling-AK party in Ankara, President Erdogan revealed that he was surprised by the threat made by his American counterpart – yet reassured his supporters that the issue surrounding Turkish security concerns was immediately resolved. The Turkish President said, “My friends and I were saddened by some messages released through the personal social media account of Mr. (Donald) Trump. We had immediately stepped into action and we discussed these matters with him once again on the phone. It was a very positive conversation.” / “I believe that we have reached a historic understanding last night with Mr. Trump about these matters.” According to the Turkish leader, he reached an agreement with President Trump on establishing a 30 kilometers safe zone that will protect Turkey’s southern frontier. He stated that “The safe zone issue, including a safe zone along Turkey’s borders that will be formed by us – an issue that I have brought up since the Obama era – was reiterated by him as 20 miles and that is a safe zone which is over 30 kilometers.”
