LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s been one week since President Donald Trump ordered U.S. troops out of Syria, abandoning Kurdish allies who fought side-by-side to defeat ISIS for five years.
Kentucky Senator and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is now speaking out, saying he’s “concerned” about recent events in Syria and the nation’s response.
“For years, the United States and our Syrian Kurdish partners have fought heroically to corner ISIS and destroy its physical caliphate. Abandoning this fight now and withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria would re-create the very conditions that we have worked hard to destroy and invite the resurgence of ISIS. And such a withdrawal would also create a broader power vacuum in Syria that will be exploited by Iran and Russia, a catastrophic outcome for the United States’ strategic interests,” he said in a statement.
McConnell says Turkey has legitimate concerns stemming from the conflict in Syria but their offensive against the Kurds is jeopardizing the progress made in the fight against ISIS.
After Trump was bombarded with criticism for the move, he announced Monday that he would be placing new sanctions on Turkey by halting trade negotiations and raising steel tariffs in hopes of pressuring them to stop their offensive, according to the Associated Press.
“Withdrawing American leadership from this pivotal region would not serve our nation’s short-, medium-, or long-term interests. It would only make a troubling situation much worse, not only for regional partners such as Israel and Jordan but for the United States as well,” McConnell said.
McConnell says he’s looking forward to what the country can do to avoid a “strategic calamity with his Senate colleagues and senior administration officials when the Senate returns to Washington this week.”
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.