Trump angrily denies giving Turkey's Erdogan 'green light' for Syria invasion

‘If you look at the Kurds – I say this with great respect – they’re no angels’

Donald Trump has angrily dismissed the suggestion he gave a green light for Turkey to invade Syria, despite analysts saying his withdrawal of US troops did precisely that.

In a strident defence of his controversial decision to withdraw fewer that 50 US troops that were operating in Syria with Kurdish fighters in anti-Isis operations, the president said had been elected to bring home America’s troops.

He said there were plenty of voices, including “the military industrial complex” that would like the US to remain in the Middle East, yet he told reporters at the White House: It’s time to bring our soldiers back home. That’s the way it is.”

At the same time, he appeared displeased when he was asked if he had any regret about the decision to withdraw the US forces, a decision he made after speaking with Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan.

“I didn’t give him a green light. When you say a statement like that, it’s so deceptive,” he said, a press conference with Italy’s Sergio Mattarella.

He added: “I’m not going to get involved in a war between Turkey and Syria...If you look at the Kurds, I say this with great respect, they’re no angels.”

The president’s move was widely condemned in the US and the region. A number of senior Republicans, including senators Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell condemned the decision. Others said the Kurds, who had spearheaded an international operation to crush Isis had been abandoned.

Immediately after Mr Trump’s withdrawal of US troops, Turkish troops and allied Syrian Arab groups, swept into northeast Syria.

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee, while there were reports of rape and killing by invading fighters. Hundreds of family members of Isis fighters escaped from prisons operated by the Kurds. The Kurds themselves broker a deal with the Syrian government, to protect them against Turkey’s advance.

“It’s not our land,” Mr Trump insisted, after saying in the situation in the region was “strategically brilliant” from an American perspective.

“If Turkey goes into Syria that’s between Turkey and Syria. That’s not between Turkey and the United States, like a lot of stupid people would like you to believe.”

He added: “Our soldiers are not in harm’s way, as they shouldn’t be, as two countries fight over land. That has nothing to do with us.“

Turkey wanted to establish a buffer zone inside Syria to protect itself from the Kurds, which it claims are linked to the PKK, a Kuridish organisation seeking autonomy in Turkey and which Ankara considers a terrorist group.

Mr Trump repeated what appeared to be a a Turkish government talking point when he said: “The PKK, which is a part of the Kurds...is probably worse at terror, more of a terrorist threat in many ways, than Isis.”

Following the withdrawal of US forces, the Kurds who made up the Syrian Defence Force, brokered a deal with the government in Damascus with Russia as intermediaries.

Mr Trump concluded by saying: “Russia hates Isis as much as the United States does.. We’re fighting a war for Russia? We’re fighting a war for Iran? We’re killing Isis and we’re 7,000 miles away.”