Trump's contradiction toward Turkey confuses Washington and unites Congress against him

Mohamed Minshawi-Washington

Turkey's military intervention in northern Syria has pushed the US Congress to a unique position of harsh criticism of Ankara and President Donald Trump, and a divided Congress on several issues has shown harmony, prompting some Republicans to accuse the president of making a big mistake.

Democrats agreed with their Republican opponents that the decision to withdraw troops from Syria opened the door to exposing Kurdish allies to an unequal confrontation with Turkey.

Trump adopted several contradictory positions that put him at the heart of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, and contributed to the confusion of US circles. The former envoy of the coalition against the Islamic State, John Allen, described Washington's attitude towards events in Syria as "chaotic" during an appearance with CNN.

Trump swing
Trump said Thursday that his country had three alternatives to deal with the situation. "Either we send thousands of troops and win militarily, or we can hit Turkey financially and impose sanctions, or we can broker a deal between Turkey and the Kurds," he said.

For his part, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the president's decision to withdraw troops in an interview with national television. "Turkey has legitimate security concerns and there is a terrorist threat from the south," he said.

He dismissed reports that Washington had given Turkey the "green light" to launch the attack, although many disagreed with him.A former commander of the Central Command, Joseph Votel, said Thursday at a seminar at the Middle East Institute in Washington that his country is abandoning this position a reliable ally.

Votel accused Turkey of threatening the stability of the region, saying that northern Syria was very stable, and that what is happening now is changing this fact.

Trump, on the other hand, continues to make contradictory statements, further complicating the situation. Former US ambassador and Middle East expert David Mack believes the president is trying to prove to his supporters that he is better than his predecessors Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton by ending military involvement in the Middle East.

In his view, the United States has worked throughout its history to build international alliances, and its reluctant stance on cooperation with Turkey has led to tensions with the latter and with Kurdish groups.

However, he believes that relations with Turkey could improve over time, but it is likely that the rift in relations with Syrian Kurds will be difficult to remedy in the near future.

"The Kurds are not angels," said David Aaron Miller, a former State Department official and now an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, adding that they were persecuting Syrian Arabs and that their fight against ISIS was not in Washington's service but in keeping their hopes of establishing a Kurdish state and "linked to the PKK." The terrorist. "

He added in a series of tweets that it is understandable the position of the media, Congress and social media about the horror of the images of killing and displacement of refugees, but the Trump and Obama administrations did not lose Syria as some claim, there were no important interests at all.

Harmony in Congress
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen presented a joint resolution aimed at imposing unprecedented sanctions on Turkey, including targeting the property of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and senior officials.

The draft resolution also includes the use of the Anti-American Enemies Through Sanctions Act, known as Gasta, passed by Congress in 2017 to impose sanctions on countries such as Russia, North Korea and Iran, the first time anyone has demanded its application against a Washington ally and a NATO member.

The senators vowed to impose sanctions unless the Trump administration sees Turkey inform Washington of its military moves.

Ambassador Mack believes that Congress will only be able to present a draft resolution that is hostile to Turkey and rejects its military intervention in northern Syria. Unlike congressional resolutions on Saudi Arabia because of its war in Yemen, the president does not need to veto Congress. The bill does not include a ban on arms sales or funding military operations, as was the case with legislation relating to the Yemen war.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said any major new conflict between Turkey and the Kurds would risk damaging Turkey's relations with America.

McConnell's Kentucky state is a stronghold of a large Kurdish community, which is running for office in the Senate, making Kurdish votes there important to him.

At the same time, Trump does not want to lose Republican support in anticipation of developments on the issue of his isolation, and many experts doubt that a split between the president and the Senate over the Kurds.