Vice Pres. Pence: 'I'm grateful for the president's leadership. I'm grateful for the more than five hours of negotiations with Pres. Erdogan...that arrived at a solution that we believe will save lives.'
Turkey has agreed to a ceasefire in northern Syria between its forces and their allied rebels and U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds, Vice President Mike Pence announced."It will be a pause in military operation for 120 hours, while the United States facilitates the withdrawal of YPG from the affected areas in the safe zone.
The high-level diplomacy comes one day after President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about the violent clashes:"That's between Turkey and Syria, it's not between Turkey and the United States, like a lot of stupid people would like us to, would like you to believe," he said in the Oval Office Wednesday.
Trump denied Wednesday that he had given a green light, saying he could not have stopped Turkey:"There was never given a green light. They've been wanting to do that for years and, frankly, they’ve been fighting for many, many years." Later, the full delegations met, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien from the U.S. side and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from Turkey. No one spoke during a brief photo op at the start, even after one reporter asked whether they'd agreed on a ceasefire.
But on Wednesday, just hours before Pence departed for Ankara -- carrying out Trump's directive to try to negotiate a ceasefire -- Trump again said he did not think the United States should get involved."It's not our border," he told reporters at the White House."We shouldn't be losing lives over it."
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