U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday to discuss Syria as the United States prepares to withdraw its troops from the war-torn country.
The two met behind closed doors to discuss the creation of a “safe zone” in northeast Syria, according to reports.
Graham has raised concerns about President Trump’s plan to withdraw American forces from Syria, asserting the pullout would endanger Kurdish allies in the region and embolden the Islamic State terror group.
“I hope the president would look long and hard about what we’re doing in Syria,” Graham said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week for William Barr, Trump’s attorney general nominee. Soon afterward, news broke that three U.S. soldiers and an American interpreter working for the Defense Department of Defense were recently killed by a suicide bomb in Syria — an attack for which ISIS has claimed responsibility.
Trump declared in December that ISIS had been defeated, contradicting assessments from his own experts and prompting criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. The U.S. began airstrikes in Syria in 2014, followed by ground troops to battle ISIS and train Syrian rebels. – READ MORE