Syria: Trump evokes possible American mediation in Kurdish-Turkish conflict

DOnald Trump on Thursday discussed the possibility of US mediation in the conflict between Turkey and the Kurds after the start of the Ankara offensive against a Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria.

"We have one of three choices: send thousands of soldiers to win militarily, hit Turkey very hard financially and with sanctions, and play the mediators for an agreement between Turkey and the Kurds! The US president wrote in a tweet.

He did not provide further details on the latter option, including whether US diplomats were already trying to mediate such a solution.

Donald Trump left the field open on the Turkish military offensive by removing American soldiers who were in Syria near the border with Turkey. The US president has since been under fire by American politicians, including his own Republican camp, for "abandoning the Kurds" and risking the possibility of a resurgence of the Islamic State group.

Faced with this outcry, he assured that it would sanction the Turkish economy if the operation in Syria exceeded "the limits", without specifying where he placed the red line.

"We recognize that Turkey has legitimate security interests"

Asked about it on Thursday in an interview for the television program "Full Court Press", which will be broadcast Sunday, the head of the American diplomacy Mike Pompeo refused to "describe precisely" this red line. "But I can assure you that the Turkish leaders know very well what it is," he added, according to excerpts released to the media.

"We recognize that Turkey has legitimate security interests" in the face of "organizations it has designated as terrorists," and therefore has "the right to defend itself", but "we do not abandon the Kurds", a- he explained.

"If there is a massacre of the Kurds, or if there is a behavior that does not correspond to what Erdogan has promised to do to President Trump," the latter "will resort to economic sanctions and all the tools of American diplomacy to try to convince the Turks that they must stop, "warned the Secretary of State.