US President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a "friend" whom he respects.
His remarks came when asked about the potential withdrawal of US troops from Syria once he takes office later this month during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Tuesday.
“I won't tell you that, because that's part of a military strategy, but I will say it was Türkiye,” Trump said. “President Erdogan is a friend of mine. He's a guy I like, respect. I think he respects me also.”
“But if you look at what happened with Syria, Russia was weakened, Iran was weakened. And he's a very smart guy, and he sent his people in there through different forms and different names, and they went in and they took over,” Trump added.
The regime of Bashar al Assad fell last month after a coalition of opposition forces swiftly took over major Syrian cities.
Millions of Syrians, including opposition leaders, had moved to Türkiye to escape the atrocities of the Assad regime. Some of them have now returned to help redevelop their war-torn state.
The US has nearly 2,000 troops stationed in Syria, where Washington has long sought to legitimise the presence of the PKK terrorist group and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, under the guise of combating Daesh.
Washington’s support for the YPG-dominated SDF in Syria remains a major point of contention between Türkiye and the US.
