Mike Pence has arrived in Ankara on a high-stakes mission to persuade President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to halt Turkey’s military incursion into Syria and avoid becoming “the devil”, in the words of Donald Trump.
The US vice-president is leading a delegation that includes Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, and Robert O’brien, US national security adviser. They are trying to repair the damage critics say the US president caused when he appeared to give a green light to Ankara by removing American troops from north-east Syria, where Us-backed Kurdish forces had been fighting Isis jihadis.
Critics from across the political spectrum condemned the president’s actions, accusing Mr Trump of abandoning the Kurds, who have lost 11,000 lives battling the terror group.
The US withdrawal has created a vacuum that was immediately filled by Moscow, with Russian troops recording videos from abandoned American bases.
John Allen, a retired US Marine general who heads the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, called it a “policy catastrophe”.
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“Turkey’s invasion effectively undid in 96 hours what had been accomplished in four years. Everyone told Trump not to do this,” said Mr Allen. “The Pence mission is an attempt to put a battle dressing on a massive self-inflicted wound. Erdogan and Putin are calling the shots.”
Elizabeth Dent, an Isis and Syria expert at the Middle East Institute think-tank, said: “The optic is that we are being forced out of Syria by a Nato ally, Russia and the [Syrian] regime.”
Mr Trump on Wednesday denied giving the Turkish president approval for the incursion in an October 6 phone call, adding that he had created a “strategically brilliant” outcome. He said Turkey and Syria could argue or “fight it out” but that the conflict had “nothing to do with us”.
Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator and an ally of the president, lambasted Mr Trump for comments that “completely undercut” the ability of Mr Pence to negotiate a ceasefire.
Many experts doubted whether the vice-president’s delegation would secure a positive outcome in any case.
“I don’t think the US has a negotiating advantage at this point,” said Thad Troy, a former senior CIA officer with experience in Turkey and who is now at Crumpton Group, a business intelligence company. “Erdogan has pulled the carpet out from under the US. It’s a fait accompli.”
Mr Trump on Wednesday defended his actions by referencing a letter to Mr Erdogan, in which he said he would become “the devil” if he chose the wrong path. But the letter was dated October 9 — three days after their call and on the first day of the invasion.
US officials said Mr Erdogan would have invaded regardless.
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to censure Mr Trump. Mitch Mcconnell, the Republican Senate majority leader who rarely chastises the president, said it was a “mistake”. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House, said Mr Trump was having a “meltdown” following a tense White House meeting.
Mr Trump has also created a problem for Nato, putting members of the transatlantic alliance in the middle of a controversy that some say has increased the chances that Isis could re-emerge.
