ANKARA (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump announced that he is lifting sanctions imposed on the government of Turkey as it informed his administration that it would be stopping combat and their offensive in Syria, and making the ceasefire permanent.
In a White House news conference Wednesday, Trump said that a ceasefire along Syria's border has held very well, beyond most expectations.
'I have therefore instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to lift all sanctions imposed on October 14th in response to Turkey's original offensive moves against the Kurds in Syria's northeast border region,' he told reporters. 'So the sanctions will be lifted unless something happens that we're not happy with,' he added.
After the pull-out of U.S. forces, Turkey launched its unilateral attack earlier this month to push the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) away from the border area, and to create a 'safe zone' in Syrian border to resettle tens of thousands of Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.
In response to Turkey's unilateral military offensive, the U.S. Government imposed sanctions on the Erdogan government last week.
To avoid further sanctions, he urged Turkey for an immediate ceasefire in northeast Syria and return to a dialogue with the United States on security in the region.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to a ceasefire after meeting with U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence in Ankara.
Turkey has agreed to a permanent ceasefire on completion of the withdrawal of the fighters of the Kurdish YPG from the safe zone.
Trump also announced that the United States is ending its military presence in Syria, except for a small number of U.S. troops that will remain 'in the area where they have the oil'.
'We were supposed to be there for 30 days; that was almost 10 years ago.....and now we're leaving. Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand,' Trump said.
In a major development that evolved over the past week, a key border zone along Syria's north east previously held by US troops and their Kurdish allies have been taken over by the Turkey-Russia alliance.
As per a deal signed in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Syrian and Russian forces will monitor the ongoing withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the sensitive Syrian region of 30 kilometers along the border from the Euphrates to the Iraqi border.
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