Vice President Mike Pence announced on Thursday that the US reached a ceasefire agreement with Turkey to suspend its military operation in Syria for five days to allow Kurdish forces to retreat from a designated safe zone.
Pence said that Turkey will suspend its military operations to allow the Kurdish forces to leave the zone, with U.S. forces aiding them in the retreat.
The agreement comes amid growing global criticism over Turkey’s military invasion in Syria after President Donald Trump ordered U.S. forces to withdraw from the country.
“I just want to thank and congratulate President Erdogan. He’s a friend of mine, and I’m glad we didn’t have a problem because, frankly, he’s a hell of a leader,” Trump said to reporters ahead of an event in Texas.
“I want to thank everybody. And the other thing I want to thank as a group, I want to thank the Kurds because they were incredibly happy with this solution. This is a solution that really, well it saved their lives.”
“This is a situation where everyone is happy and I’m happy because we can bring most of our people back home,” Trump also said it was a “great day for civilisation” and a “great day for the Kurds.”
When asked about ISIS, Trump said they will be under the supervision of Kurds and the US. “We are going to have people that are watching ISIS and it will largely be controlled by the Kurds...so ISIS will be controlled by the Kurds with our supervision.”
*Watch the video here-
*Video source: NBC News
