© Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump
"Turkey's action is precipitating a humanitarian crisis and setting conditions for possible war crimes," Trump said on Monday, announcing the upcoming measures against Ankara.
In addition to an executive order sanctioning current and former officials involved in "destabilizing actions in northeast Syria," Trump said he would raise tariffs on Turkish steel to 50 percent, and immediately stop the negotiations over a trade deal valued at $100 billion.
[For full statement, go here.]
Turkey launched the so-called Operation Peace Spring last week, following Trump's announcement that he was pulling back US troops stationed along the Syrian-Turkish border. Kurdish militias working with the US against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) are considered by Ankara to be terrorist organizations, and the operation was aimed at pushing them back 30 km away from the border.
"I am fully prepared to swiftly destroy Turkey's economy if Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path," the US president said.
While accusing Ankara of jeopardizing the victory over IS, Trump also announced the departure of all remaining US troops from Syria, with the exception of a "small footprint" at At-Tanf in the south, on the border with Jordan.
"Let Syria and Assad protect the Kurds and fight Turkey for their own land," Trump had tweeted an hour earlier, referring to the Syrian president Bashar Assad, and adding he would much rather focus on defending the US border with Mexico.
This may already be happening, as the Syrian Arab Army has been spotted moving towards the border on Monday under an apparent deal with the Kurds. The US has previously blocked any attempts by the Syrian government to reclaim territory liberated from IS by the Kurdish militias, seeking to establish some kind of parallel administration in hopes of eventually overthrowing Assad.
Comment: This is Trump's response to the criticism he has received for "abandoning the Kurds." It lets him appear tough and take the "correct" moral stance - by threatening to ensure that Turkey behaves in a way the critics of the withdrawal would prefer. By promising a response, he can still be perceived as a man of action, and not one who is simply picking up and hightailing it out of Syria. He's essentially siding with the critics of the withdrawal by focusing attention on the party both sides can agree is guilty - Turkey - leaving his critics stuck in the position of kind of having to agree with him. Ironically, because of Russia's mediation, those same folks - who have been cheerleading for the Kurds - are now in a position to also side with Assad, who has taken up the mantle of their protector. Must be a cause for some mighty cognitive dissonance.
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