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Top Republican urges slow US pullout until IS ‘truly defeated’
ANKARA, Jan 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A senior Republican senator on Saturday
urged President Donald Trump to slow down the withdrawal of US ground troops
from Syria until jihadists were defeated to avoid a “nightmare” for
Washington’s allies.
“I would hope that President Trump would slow the withdrawal until we
truly destroy ISIS,” Lindsey Graham told a press conference in Ankara, using
an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group.
He warned any hasty pullout could lead to a “nightmare” scenario for
Israel because of increasing Iranian influence in the war-torn country and
for Turkey because of its national security concerns.
The South Carolina lawmaker was in Turkey from Friday for a two-day visit
during which he met Turkish officials including President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
His talks with Erdogan lasted for over two hours after which he was
invited by the Turkish leader to a concert on Friday night by pianist Fazil
Say.
Ankara welcomed Trump’s announcement last month that the US would pull out
its 2,000 military personnel from Syria but American officials and security
experts have been more cautious, worried about withdrawing too early.
Graham, who as a member of the Senate Armed Services committee has
frequently visited US troops in combat zones, said he believed the “goal of
destroying ISIS is not yet accomplished”.
Their defeat had been “accomplished territorially” but there were
“thousands of ISIS fighters that lurk in Syria”, Graham warned.
Four Americans, including two service personnel, were among those killed
in a suicide attack this week claimed by the group in the key city of Manbij
in Syria’s north.
Washington has also expressed concern over Turkey’s plans to launch a
cross-border military operation against the US-backed Syrian Kurdish People’s
Protection Units (YPG) militia. Trump last weekend warned of devastating
economic consequences for Turkey over any attack on Kurdish forces.
US support for the YPG has caused tension with Ankara which views the
militia as a “terrorist offshoot” of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK).
The PKK, which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984, is
blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the US and the European
Union.
Graham previously warned that “Kurds will get slaughtered” if the US
withdrew immediately.
But on Saturday, the senator said the YPG’s political branch, the
Democratic Union Party (PYD), “is interlinked with the PKK” as he
acknowledged Turkey’s concerns over the militia.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1644 hrs