Turkey wants US to withdraw troops from Syria, Iraq similar to how it pulled out of Afghan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said that he wants the US to withdraw its troops from other countries in the region similar to how it pulled out of Afghanistan. In a televised interview with CBS, Erdogan specifically named Syria and Iraq as the two nations where Washington should end its military presence. He suggested that such a move would promote peace in the region. 

Erdogan said, “Of course, if I have the choice I would, I would want them to get out of Syria and Iraq. Just like the way they have withdrawn from Afghanistan. Because if we are going to service peace around the world, it's no longer meaningful to remain in those parts of the world. We can just leave those people, leave those administrations to make up their own minds.”

When asked whether he ever raised the issue of a possible withdrawal from Syria with his US counterpart Joe Biden, Erdogan said that he never asked POTUS about this when they met in Brussels. He added that he and Biden mostly focused on Afghanistan in their conversations. 

Turkey hopes to work collectively with US, Russia, Iran 

Further, when the interviewee asked Erdogan if Turkey would intercede into Syria and if it would guarantee that human rights would be protected, the Turkish president said that firstly, Turkey would never remain where it is not wanted. “We will never be present where we are not welcome,” he said. Erdogan added that in Syria, Turkey is currently building 100,000 units of brick homes for people and families that were displaced and were kicked out of their motherland. 

He also went on to say, “I hope that the United States, Russia, Iran, Turkey, both in Syria and Iraq, we can work together collectively for the peace of the people in those parts of the world.”

It is worth mentioning US troops are still deployed in Iran, despite several attempts to pull them out since the start of the US offensive against the nation, and in Syria. The Syrian government calls the presence of the US military and its involvement in the extraction and export of its natural resources illegal. Meanwhile, the US and other NATO countries withdrew from Afghanistan by the end of August after Biden announced the plans to end the almost 20-year war in the war-torn nation. Observers had described the withdrawal as “chaotic” as many Afghan civilians who helped the alliance remained abandoned in the country seized by the Taliban. 

(Image: AP)