#and there will be a buffer state(s) between nato and russia
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Where exactly do you stand on the Ukraine issue because I keep getting mixed messages from your blog.
no, i've been consistent on this from the beginning.
i don't care.
i see both sides and i sympathize with both sides. however, i don't think america should be involved. let them fight it out or negotiate or whatever. unless the world wants to formally recognize america's hegemony, and they offer us tribute or something, i really don't feel an obligation to protect any country that we don't have a treaty with or any interest in.
#instead of nato expanding eastward#all those quote unquote westernized central/eastern european states#should have created their own pact#create the intermarium for real#so those states will have some security against russia#and there will be a buffer state(s) between nato and russia#though i still maintain the best option is to reconcile with russia#and incorporate them into europe as well
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News Roundup 1/26/2024 | The Libertarian Institute
Here is your daily roundup of today's news:
News Roundup 1/26/2024
by Kyle Anzalone
US News
Lockheed Unable to Deliver Promised Number of F-35s in 2024 Def One
Russia
Ukrainian Government Exposed Surveilling News Outlet DWThe Institute
Russia Says Ukraine Shot Down Plane Carrying Ukrainian POWs AWC
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Approves Bill Allowing Seized of Frozen Russian Funds The Hill
NATO Begins Largest War Games Since End of Cold War VOA
Biden Tells Congress to Approve F-16 Sale to Turkey After Ankara Approves Sweden’s NATO Bid NYTAWC
China
US Warship Sails Though Taiwan Strait Reuters
Taiwan’s President-Elect Meets with Members of Congress ReutersAWC
Korea
US Officials Believe N. Korea Will Attack S. Korea But Try to Avoid Full-Scale War The Institute
Israel
Palestinians in Israeli Prisons Report Sexual Abuse and Humiliation NBC NewsThe Institute
Israeli Officials Deny Reports of Progress in Hostage Negotiations With Hamas AWC
21 Israeli Soldiers Killed While Destroying Building for Gaza “Buffer Zone” WashPo
Israeli Forces Creating 1 Kilometer-Wide “No-Man’s Land” Inside Gaza WSJ
Biden Campaign Hires Adviser to Mitigate “Genocide Joe” Protests NBC News
Over a Third of Americans Say Israel Is Committing a Genocide in Gaza The Institute
State Department Refuses to Condemn Israel Shooting Group of Palestinians Waving White Flag AWC
White House Likely to Extend Middle East Deployment of 2,000 Soldiers RS
Israel’s War on Gaza Has Paralyzed Palestinian Education AJ
Israel Has No Plans to Withdraw Troops from Gaza MEE
Biden Sends CIA Head Burns Broker Hostage Deal Between Israel and Hamas The HillAWC
White House Moves Forward with Major Arms Deal for Israel JPostAWC
1 in 5 Israeli Soldiers Killed in Gaza Died By Friendly Fire or in Accidents NBC News
Israeli Aid Restrictions Cause Gazan Women Go Without Menstrual Products IBT
US Refuses to Say If It Will Respect ICJ Ruling on Genocide Case Against Israel AWC
Iraq
US, Iraq to Start Talks on Future of US Military Presence AWC
US Confirms It’s Entering Talks That Could Lead to US Withdrawal From Iraq AWC
Yemen
Bipartisan Group of Senators Question Biden’s Yemen Strategy and Constitutional War Powers LetterAWC
US Bombs Yemen for 9th Time, Houthis Attack US Commercial Ship AWC
US Military Buildup in the Middle East Costs $1.6 Billion PoliticoThe Institute
More Shipping Companies Announce They Will Avoid Red Sea Business Insider
Read More
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PUTIN, STALIN, AND FDR
The atrocities and wholesale destruction visited upon the nation of Ukraine beginning February 24, 2022, and the annexation of Crimea in 2014 by Vladimir Putin’s Red Army is as much due to the megalomania of a madman as it is to the fecklessness of democracies who have failed to stand together to confront such evil. Tragically, we have seen this movie before.
One can argue that it all started with the 32nd president of the United States. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt always had a soft heart for the Russians and especially Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin relishing the privilege of calling the ruthless dictator “Uncle Joe.” The President actually believed that “If I give Stalin everything I can, and ask for nothing in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of peace and democracy.” Peace and democracy?
This appraisal of Stalin as historian Paul Kengor has noted “… was one of the most naïve assessments of any major foreign leader in the history of the United States.”
The President believed, until it was much too late, that he could “play” Stalin, that he could make a “Christian gentleman” out of the dictator. Yet, it was the President who was played with great virtuosity to the detriment of millions of innocents who ultimately felt the wrath, rape, and plunder of Uncle Joe.
According to historian Timothy Snyder, during the period 1930 to 1933 approximately five million people died as a result of Stalin’s famines with Ukrainian peasants bearing the brunt of the savagery. And, that between 1936 and 1938 in what was called the Great Purge approximately one million people were executed. Further, on September 17, 1939 the Soviets invaded Poland from the east only days after Germany invaded the nation from the west in keeping with the diabolical Hitler-Stalin pact. More emblematic, however, of the apparent hypnotic influence Stalin had over President Roosevelt was the president’s refusal to accept the fact that the Soviets had murdered nearly 22,000 POW Polish military officers on March 5, 1940 in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, Russia. President Roosevelt was adamant in his disbelief that the Soviets had been responsible – despite overwhelming and indisputable evidence – claiming that the Germans had “rigged things up.” In sum, President Roosevelt was playing “nice” with Stalin knowing full well that he was dealing with a murderous tyrant long before he had reason to interact with the dictator about how to defeat the Nazis.
Clearly, President Roosevelt was lulled by his genuine – albeit profoundly naïve – belief that the Soviets were hostile because they felt threatened by external forces. These days, Vladimir Putin sings a common refrain: Russia feels threatened by the West and especially the NATO alliance. The buffer state that once was, so the argument goes, has been lost to Russia from the time Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Russian argument, echoed by some in the American media, is a red-herring. If Ukraine were part of present-day Russia, it would still be cheek to jowl with NATO countries Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. So much for the close proximity argument. What drove Putin to invade Ukraine is that since the dismemberment of the Soviet Union he has sought to cobble back together the former Soviet empire.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
At President Roosevelt’s insistence, Berlin was ceded not to the Western Allies but to the Soviets at war’s end. Time and again, the President ignored the advice of Winston Churchill who felt that allied forces should “meet the Red Army as far east as possible”. He also ignored the advice of General George S. Patton who pleaded that “we had better take Berlin, and quick.” In fact, the Ninth Army led by General William Simpson was all of forty-eight hours from Berlin. No matter. General Patton was told to stand down.
What was the consequence of Roosevelt’s fondness for Stalin? After the fall of Berlin, the carnage under Stalin continued apace, and the stage was set for the eventual nuclear confrontation between the Soviets and the United States: the capture of Berlin allowed the Soviets to get their hands on several tons of uranium oxide used as fuel in nuclear reactors, and to seize Germany’s leading scientific minds most significantly those who had worked on Hitler’s nuclear projects.
Scores of German scientists were forced – some apparently were happy to volunteer – to work on the Soviet A-bomb. Luminaries such as Manfred von Ardenne, Gustav Hertz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics with James Franck, Max Volmer, Max Steenbeck and Nikolaus Riehl all worked hard and were able to deliver to Stalin a nuclear bomb by 1949 a scant four years after the takeover of Berlin.
President Roosevelt’s “gift” of Berlin to Stalin as a way to ingratiate himself to the dictator failed miserably. At the Yalta Conference, February, 1945, President Roosevelt assured Winston Churchill that “…Stalin was not an imperialist.” Geopolitical savvy was never President Roosevelt’s strong suit. Not long after the conference Stalin put in place the Communist Bloc of nations which enslaved millions of people for decades to come.
In the end, “the courtship of Stalin during World War II failed abysmally” according to Robert Nisbet in his groundbreaking book, Roosevelt and Stalin: The Failed Courtship.
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ROLLS OUT THE RED CARPET FOR STALIN’S STOOGES
President Roosevelt was especially keen to host members of a Soviet delegation preferably those who had seen action against the Nazis. Mrs. Pavlichenko was one of three people sent by the Soviet Union to the United States to participate in an international student assembly sponsored by Washington that would tour the country and speak out against Fascism at various colleges and universities. Delegates to the assembly were to include representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and China.
Red Army sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko known to have had 309 confirmed enemy kills – that is, verified by another party – and possibly many more that went unrecorded was the darling of the Soviet delegation that met with President Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in both Washington D.C. and the President’s ancestral home in Hyde Park, New York. The First Lady literally fawned over Mrs. Pavlichenko. She went so far as to cut to size and sew a pair of her own silk pajamas for Mrs. Pavlichenko’s use.
In addition to Mrs. Pavlichenko, a second member of the Soviet delegation was also a sniper with 100 enemy kills to his credit, and the third was secretary for propaganda of the Young Communist League’s Moscow district. So much for “student” representatives.
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S DOMESTIC LEGACY
If it can be safely said that President Roosevelt was an ineffective wartime president especially in his relations with the Soviets. What did his administration actually accomplish for the common man?
President Roosevelt was puzzled about what to do about the Great Depression except that through his senseless meddling in the economy (“experimentation” the President called it) he made the Depression great. In 1937, four years after President Roosevelt had taken office, the United States economy snapped back to its 1932 levels. It took a world war and not government intervention to finally put a nail in the coffin of the Depression.
As to the President’s New Deal, it was meant to supplant private enterprise initiatives with public sector policies and programs that would, in the end, affect Americans from all walks of life. Most corrosively, the New Deal helped launch a welfare state from which there is now no return. The President, as well as a number of his closest advisers, were very comfortable with the collectivist policies of the Soviet Union as well as those of the Fascist regime of Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini.
That he had a soft heart for communist ideals was clear from his statement that “They [the Soviets] all seem really to want to do what is good for their society instead of wanting to do for themselves. We take care of ourselves and think about the welfare of society afterward.” A “mystical devotion” rhapsodized President Roosevelt.
Unfortunately, that sentiment was grievously misguided. There is little one can point to of Stalin’s actions that were good for Soviet society. That he took a backward, illiterate, and agrarian nation and transformed it into an industrial power, as some would have it, is a specious argument. Leaving aside for the moment the enormous price in human lives that afforded such a transformation the reality is that the fruits of such industrialization were kept in the hands of the party’s apparatchiks. The average Soviet citizen was hardly the beneficiary of such inhuman sacrifices. More broadly, Stalin promoted Marxism-Leninism across the world to the point that it became the least democratic, least successful, and thus most reviled form of government on the face of the earth.
As French historian Stephane Courtois states in his book, The Black Book of Communism, “Communist regimes turned mass crime into a full-blown system of government.”
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Looking Back: Reviewing 2017 Predictions
Here’s the recap of last year’s predictions. See this year’s predictions, here.
Below, the prediction indented, my comments follow. Bolding is from the original post:
1. Work chat will continue to dominate the market for enterprise ‘collaboration’, and AI-based ‘team members’ with deep learning skill sets will become commonplace, building on chatbot models of interaction but assuming larger roles in project management, development, marketing, and HR. Slack is acquired by Amazon for $35 billion, and loosely integrated into AWS.
Got the first part right. Many, many bots are in use, so kinda good on that. Slack was NOT acquired by Amazon or anyone else in 2017.
2. The hottest business trend of 2017 will be AI-based ‘driverless management’, displacing Holocracy and other management ‘business operating systems’ fads. AI will play a significantly larger role in areas that human cognitive biases are most problematic, like hiring and promotion, decision support, and ensuring diversity, equality, and well-being in the workplace. (Daemon (via Daniel Saurez) meets the workplace.) Several unknown start-ups will lead this new exploding sector.
I was just too early with this, although the driverless management trend is heating up.
3. Following Trump’s proposed withdrawal of US supporting NATO troops in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, Vladimir Putin’s Russia will occupy some part of the Baltics, like the Latgale region of Latvia, which is ~40% ethnic Russian. Mike Pence resigns as Vice President following major disagreements with Trump on the Baltics and NATO. Trump nominates Elaine Chao as Vice President, his Secretary of Transportation, and she is appointed in October, the first woman and first Asian American to serve in that role.
This move by Putin didn’t happen, but joint military exercises in Belarus involved as many as 100,000 Russian troops. Russia rejects Ukrainian assertions that most of the troops were left in place.
4. North Korea will fire a rocket that hits Kodiak Island in Alaska, although it carries only a conventional warhead. Kim Jong-un says the rocket was supposed to have crashed in the ocean before landfall, but many believe it was on track to hit Anchorage.
This has not happened, but the degree of staging up to a new war state with North Korea has been fairly terrifying. NK can now hit all continental US with nuclear warheads, experts agree.
5. Trump raises massive trade barriers to Chinese goods, sparking a trade war that damages both countries’ economies. This is in part because of an inability to get China to – in effect – take control of North Korea, but also as part of an attempt by US and European companies to make China’s markets more open: a second Opium War.
Trump’s trade war has been minimized by the conventional GOP buffer zone around him now. Score that a miss.
6. Britain begins that actual process of Brexit in mid 2017, leading Scotland to a referendum in favor of leaving the UK and applying to the EU for membership.
Yes, they did start the process.
7. The US Congress will pass legislation in early 2017 to repeal Obamacare, but defers any implementation until 2018 at the earliest, because they can’t agree on how it will be replaced or by what approach. Trump proposes a single payer system as a companion to a radical restructuring of the tax code, as he had hinted in his campaign, and falls into open discord with the establishment wing of the GOP.
Trump and company were unable to repeal ACA, but they did sneak a repeal of the individual mandate into the tax cut bill, so I’d say that a mixed result.
8. Driverless car fleets are rolled out by various car companies (Ford, Chrysler, Tesla, etc.) and car hailing platforms (Uber, Lyft, etc.). Car ownership in major urban areas continues to decline, and many municipalities create partnerships with fleet owners to augment conventional mass transportation solutions. The value of New York City taxi medallions drops over 75%.
A little early on the rollout of car fleets, but it’s coming soon. We’ve only seen small pilots in 2017. But the taxi medallions fell like a rock in 2017.
9. Amazon will buy Snapchat, and announce a new take on augmented reality glasses, picking up where Google dropped the ball years ago. Building on the success of Alexa-based Echo devices, Kindle, Fire TV, Amazon Prime, and the growing popularity of Snapchat, Amazon Eyes are the hit of Christmas 2017, with over 50 million ordered in November and December.
Amazon did announce Echo-enabled glasses are coming, but they haven’t shipped them in 2017. Snapchat has not been acquired.
10. The war in Syria comes to a Korean War-like end, with a partition of the country into various regions, and a unceasing belligerence on all parts. It is clearly a shadow war between factions backed by the West, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Russia. The stalemate here is a reflection of the reappraisal of loyalties and goals of the shadow players, more than the aims of the Syrian government and the insurgents. Bashar al-Assad rules a rump state of western Syrian, with much of the rest of ‘Syria’ in shambles.
Looks like the end state accelerated faster than I imagined, because of close work between Russia and US to crush ISIS, along with the complicity of Iran.
11. Hillary Clinton files for divorce from Bill Clinton in March 2017, and assumes the role of president of Harvard University, two weeks later.
Didn’t happen.
12. Marine Le Pen loses an unexpectedly close run-off with François Fillon, but the close election pulled Fillon and his Republicans farther right than in recent decades.
Emmanuel Macron didn’t even have a political party at the start of 2017, so that was a real surprise. The collapse of the conventional parties is the real story, and Le Pen did get to a direct election for the presidency, and lost, which is part of my prediction.
13. Oprah announces that she intends to run for President in the next election.
Still possible?
14. Angela Merkel narrowly wins reelection, after wide-spread controversy of scandals uncovered by leaks generally attributed to Putin’s brigade of hackers.
A few scandals, but mostly growing concerns about immigration and the direction for Europe: this one I got right.
15. Barack Obama joins Andreessen Horowitz as a partner, and leads a round funding AdjectiveNoun (fictitious, note), one of the most promising ‘driverless management’ startups. He also comes out in support of Oprah Winfrey’s candidacy.
Obama seems content to take it easy, and hasn’t decided what to do aside from writing some books.
16. Microsoft acquires Salesforce for $75 billion. Marc Benioff leaves to run philanthropy (amid discussions of political ambitions).
Didn’t happen, but still could.
17. Apple acquires Tesla for $75 billion. Tim Cook announces retirement, Elon Musk becomes CEO.
Now that the iPhone X is starting to look like a dud, this might become more realistic. But it didn’t happen.
18. Despite inaction by the US Federal Government, and chaos in the EPA and Energy Department, CO2 levels continue to fall worldwide. Environmental groups suggest that we may have turned the corner on energy in 2017, because solar is now cheaper than other energy sources in most places in the world. However, global temperatures continues to rise, and many models show that it might take 1000 years to reduce global temperatures.
Alas, we hit record levels of CO2 in the atmosphere in 2017. But solar is falling in price, leading to more coal power plants to close.
19. California and San Francisco, with support from Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and other platform companies, announced a project to convert increasingly unneeded parking lots to small ‘park villages’ with dense, micro-apartment developments, for low-income and homeless residents. Trump-sponsored infrastructure funds are directed to US micro-building factories and a new California Construction Corps, which is strongly supported by both Democrats and Republicans. The state’s program is seen as a blueprint for the rest of the country.
This was far too hopeful. None of this has happened, and Trump -- despite his infrastructure mumbo-jumbo -- is cutting funding that might be used for projects like ‘park villages’.
20. Michael Bloomberg announces plans to create a third ‘Pragmatist’ party, based on economic conservatism and social liberalism, and rapidly attracts a large minority of GOP and Democratic legislators in Washington who have been whipsawed by the 2016 elections, and by the growing discord in both major parties over the future of their platforms. Some project that the Pragmatists could gain as many as 30% of the seats in the House, and as many as 10 governorships in coming years. Bloomberg announces his plans to run for President.
It may be more reasonable to imagine Steven Bannon starting an independent run for the White House. But at this point it doesn’t seem that Bloomberg is planning a run.
On the whole, I did fairly badly, really. None of my acquisitions came together, North Korea didn’t bomb us, the Clintons didn’t divorce, CO2 levels continue to rise. And of course, astride the year like Godzilla was Trump, and I made very few predictions about him, and those I did were really off. I don’t think we realized how bizarroland it was going to get.
Even though my results were lousy, I am taking another run at it, in Some Predictions, 2018.
#bloomberg#pragmatist party#park villages#trump#co2#climate change#apple#tesla#microsoft#salesforce#barack obama#andreessen horowitz#oprah winfrey#angela merkel#putin#russia#belarus#latvia#marine le pen#emmanuel macron#françois fillon#hillary clinton#bill clinton#north lorea#syria#isis#iran#work chat
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U.S. Faces Tough ‘Great Game’ Against China in Central Asia and Beyond
KHIVA, Uzbekistan — Inside the ancient walls of the Silk Road oasis town of Khiva, China has put down a marker of its geopolitical ambitions. A sign promotes a Chinese aid project to renovate a once-crumbling mosque and a faded madrasa.
Outside the town’s northern gate — also rebuilt with China’s help — a billboard-size video screen shows clips of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan meeting with world leaders. President Xi Jinping of China features prominently, but there are no shots of President Trump.
That China is advertising its aid efforts so boldly in this remote outpost linking Asia and Europe — where camel caravans once arrived after crossing the Kyzylkum and Karakum Deserts — is the kind of action these days that sets off alarm bells among American officials. The Trump administration is trying with greater force to insert itself into the political and economic life of Central Asia to counter China’s presence. And American officials see the countries in the heart of the continent’s vast, arid steppe as critical battlegrounds in the struggle with China over global influence.
“Whenever we speak to countries around the world, we want to make sure that we’re doing what the people of those countries want,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week at a news conference in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.
The Uzbeks want a “good, balanced relationship,” he said.
“They have long borders,” he added. “They sit in a region where China and Russia are both present.”
Leaders of the five Central Asian nations that became independent republics after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 — Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan — are used to walking a regional tightrope. The area was contested during the so-called Great Game of the 19th century, when the British and Russian empires competed to establish influence and control.
Now a new game is underway. And officials in Central Asia, like many of their counterparts around the world, are hedging their bets when it comes to aligning with Washington or Beijing.
“I’d like to once again note that we want to see Central Asia as a region of stable development, prosperity and cooperation,” said Abdulaziz Kamilov, the foreign minister of Uzbekistan. “And we would really not like to feel on ourselves unfavorable political consequences in relation to some competition in our region between large powers.”
The State Department released a Central Asia strategy document on Feb. 5 that said the top priority was to “support and strengthen the sovereignty and independence of the Central Asian states” — a reference to warding off the influence of China and Russia.
It is a tough mission for the United States. The nations are in China’s and Russia’s backyards, and there have been decades of close interactions among them. Mr. Xi has made multiple state visits to the countries since he took power in 2012, most recently last year.
The Trump administration has hit major setbacks in its attempts to build a global coalition against projects by the Chinese government and by Chinese companies. In fact, Britain said on Jan. 28 that it would not ban technology made by Huawei, a Chinese telecom giant, from its high-speed 5G wireless network, despite intense pressure from American officials.
On Jan. 30, Mr. Pompeo made London his first stop on a six-day trip to Europe and Central Asia, and he said there that the Chinese Communist Party was “the central threat of our times.” The next day, he spoke about China with leaders in Ukraine.
But words go only so far. The Americans fail to present an economical alternative to Huawei. And the Trump administration is discovering that its belligerent approach toward allies has a cost when it comes to China strategy. Withdrawing from the global Paris climate agreement and the landmark Iran nuclear deal, starting trade conflicts with friendly governments and berating members of NATO make those nations less likely to listen to Washington’s entreaties on China.
A recent policy report on China by the Center for a New American Security said “critical areas of U.S. policy remain inconsistent, uncoordinated, underresourced and — to be blunt — uncompetitive and counterproductive to advancing U.S. values and interests.”
Some analysts say the constant hawkish talk on China by Mr. Pompeo and other American officials paradoxically makes the United States look weak.
“And that last point is just the core of it for me. A central problem of US foreign policy today, not just in Central Asia, is that it feels increasingly reactive to me — back footed and on defense, not least in the face of Chinese initiatives,” Evan A. Feigenbaum, a deputy assistant secretary of state on Central Asia and South Asia in the George W. Bush administration who is now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote on Twitter.
“To wit, the secretary of state just made the first visit by America’s top diplomat to Central Asia in five years — five! — but spent a hefty chunk of it talking about China,” he tweeted. “The challenge for the US is to get off its reactive back foot and be proactive and on offense.”
The United States did not pursue serious partnerships in Central Asia until after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the Pentagon needed regional bases for the war in Afghanistan.
China has taken a different approach. Beijing says it will help build up the region under what it calls the Silk Road Economic Belt, which is part of the larger Belt and Road Initiative, a blanket term for global infrastructure projects that, according to Beijing, amount to $1 trillion of investment. The Trump administration says the projects are potential debt traps, but many countries have embraced them.
The economic liberalization of Uzbekistan under Mr. Mirziyoyev, who took power in 2016 after the death of a longtime dictator, has resulted in greater trade with China.
China is Uzbekistan’s largest trading partner, and trade totaled almost $6.3 billion in 2018, a nearly 50 percent increase from 2017, according to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency. Chinese goods, including Huawei devices, are everywhere in Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent and other Uzbek cities.
Uzbekistan is also committing to being part of rail and road networks that China is building across Central Asia.
Since 2001, China has worked with Central and South Asian nations as well as Russia in a multilateral group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to address security issues.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has gained a new foothold in the region, in the form of a base in Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains. For at least three years, Chinese troops have quietly kept watch from two dozen buildings and lookout towers near the Tajik-Chinese border and the remote Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan. It is a strategic strip of land whose borders were drawn by Britain and Russia during the original Great Game as a buffer zone.
The United States has hundreds of troops at an air base in Uzbekistan that it operates with the Uzbeks. But it wants to move the relationship well beyond the military.
“We want private investment, American private investment sector, to flow between our two nations,” Mr. Pompeo said.
He added that the United States had committed $100 million to programs in Uzbekistan last year, and that it would give $1 million to help develop financial markets and another $1 million to increase trade and “connectivity” between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
On his trip, Mr. Pompeo also made a demand regarding human rights in China as he met with officials in Tashkent and Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan. He raised the issue of China’s internment camps that hold one million or more Muslims and urged the Central Asian nations, which are predominantly Muslim, to speak out against the camps. In Nur-Sultan, he met with Kazakhs who have had family members detained in the camps.
Yet, as in other predominantly Muslim nations, Central Asian leaders have remained silent on this. (Mr. Trump himself has said nothing, and Mr. Pompeo has been accused of hypocrisy by excluding Taiwan, the democratic island that China threatens, from a religious freedom alliance.)
In December, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, denounced Washington’s prodding of Central Asian nations on the Muslim issue: “If the United States once again tries to get up to its old tricks, it will certainly still be futile for them.”
Trump administration policies perceived as anti-Muslim undermine trust in Washington. On Jan. 31, Mr. Trump added Kyrgyzstan and five other nations, all with substantial Muslim populations, to a list of countries whose citizens are restricted in traveling to the United States. In an interview in Nur-Sultan, a Kazakh television journalist, Lyazzat Shatayeva, asked Mr. Pompeo, “What do you think that signals to the other countries and other governments in Central Asia on why it happened?”
Mr. Pompeo said Kyrgyzstan must “fix” certain things: “passport issues, visa issues, visa overstays.”
“When the country fixes those things,” he said, “we’ll get them right back in where they can come travel to America.”
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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US lashes out at 'irresponsible ally' Turkey after Trump lifts sanctions
The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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The US secretary of defence has lashed out at Turkey, saying its Nato partner put America in a “very terrible situation" over its “unwarranted invasion”, a day after President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Ankara. Mark Esper, in unusually sharp words for a US ally, said Turkey’s military assault across the border on Syrian Kurdish fighters jeopardises gains made there in recent years as the US-led coalition and allied Syrian Kurdish forces battled Islamic State. "Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation," he told the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to return to being the "responsible ally" it has been in the past. Turkey's offensive on northern Syria was internationally condemned after hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes and more than 80 Syrian civilians were killed. A Syrian man receives treatment on October 20, 2019, in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad which was seized by Turkey-backed forces last week Credit: AFP Mr Trump’s special envoy for Syria went further in its criticism, saying the US had seen evidence of war crimes during Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds, and had demanded an explanation from Ankara. “Many people fled because they’re very concerned about these Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces, as we are. We’ve seen several incidents which we consider war crimes,” James Jeffrey, special representative for Syria, told a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday. He said US officials were looking into those reports and at “a high-level” had demanded an explanation from Turkey’s government. Footage has circulated in the last two weeks of Syrian rebels fighting alongside the Turkish military executing civilians at the side of the road, including Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf. Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf was executed at the side of the road by Syrian rebels claiming to be from the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group A biopsy indicated that her legs and her jaw had been broken and that she had been dragged by her hair until the skin of her scalp came out, before being repeatedly shot. The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day Nato meeting, with diplomats in the organisation saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place. Though it is thought European members will limit themselves to criticism only due to Turkey's strategic position between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey is looking increasingly isolated in Nato, both over its heavily criticised offensive in Syria and over its decision to purchase S-400 missiles defence systems from Russia. “The direction of Turkey with regard to the alliance is heading in the wrong direction, on any number of issues,” Mr Esper said in Brussels. “We see them getting closer to Russia’s orbit…and I think that’s unfortunate.” The comments come on the heels of Mr Trump's announcement Wednesday that the US is lifting sanctions on Turkey after Ankara agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria. Mr Trump is defending his decision to withdraw about 1,000 American troops from Syria, largely abandoning the Kurdish fighters who battled Isil alongside the US for the last several years. Mr Trump has declared victory, saying the move is saving lives, but it also cedes control of a large swath of the border to Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government. He thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for negotiating a truce with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which gives Kurdish fighters until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a 20-mile-deep buffer zone. "We saved the Kurds, Erdogan did the right thing," he said in an address at the White House. But he warned that the US could reimpose sanctions on Ankara if the ceasefire failed.
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