Middle East: Trump: Türkiye holds keys to Syria

After the coup in Syria, US President-elect Donald Trump sees neighboring Turkey playing a key role. “Nobody knows what will happen to Syria,” the Republican said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “I believe Turkey will hold the key to Syria.”

With regard to Turkey, Trump spoke of an “unfriendly takeover of power” in Syria. “Turkey is behind this. (…) They’ve wanted it for thousands of years, and he got it done. The people who went in are controlled by Turkey,” Trump said. By “he” he apparently meant Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Elsewhere he spoke of a “very smart guy,” but without directly naming Erdoğan.

The background is the overthrow of long-time Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad at the beginning of December by a rebel alliance led by Islamists. In recent years, Turkey has repeatedly asserted its security interests in the neighboring country and supported various rebel groups.

When asked whether he wanted to withdraw the 900 US soldiers currently stationed in Syria, Trump responded evasively: “I don’t want our soldiers to be killed,” he said. “But I don’t think that will be necessary now.”

Digressions and anecdotes

Trump was also asked a number of other questions about the situation in the Middle East and other topics during the press conference – his answers sometimes seemed disorganized, he kept digressing, repeating himself and bringing in all sorts of personal anecdotes.

When asked about possible preemptive strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities or whether the US would support Israel for such actions, Trump remained vague: “You don’t talk about that until something happens or not.”

The US President-elect described his recent contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “very good conversation”, but without revealing details about planned measures. With regard to the efforts to free the hostages in the Gaza Strip, he emphasized that they were working “very intensively” to bring them back. Trump also warned that it would be “uncomfortable” if the hostages were not freed by the time he took office on January 20th.