Posted on 04/13/2018 9:32:37 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – CIA Director Mike Pompeo strongly criticized Turkey’s assault on the Kurdish canton of Afrin, while he hailed America’s Kurdish-led partners in fighting the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
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Sen. Robert Menendez (D, New Jersey) told Pompeo, “Turkey is supposed to be our NATO ally,” but it “is fighting the same Kurds that we have depended upon to defeat [IS].”
Displaying a picture of three leaders—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, at last week’s summit in Ankara, Menendez asked Pompeo, “What’s wrong with this picture?”
The Senator then answered his own question, “The United States isn’t even present.”
“What is the implication,” he continued, “if a Russia-Turkey-Iran alliance is unchallenged in shaping the outcome of Syria?”
The Democratic senator was taking strong exception to administration policy, as represented by President Donald Trump’s recent statement that US forces would leave Syria “very soon.”
“I largely agree with the predicate of your question,” was Pompeo’s surprising answer.
He described the presidents attending the tripartite summit as being in Ankara “for the purpose of discussing how they were going to carve up Syria.”
However, Pompeo continued, “The American people need to be represented at that table.”
Pressed by Menendez as to what his policy on Syria would be, Pompeo replied that the situation was “incredibly complex,” and “Turkey’s entry into Afrin took an already complex situation” and made it more so.
Referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Pompeo also hailed the “group of men who did great work,” as “we took the caliphate down,” even as he stressed, “the mission is not yet complete.”
(Excerpt) Read more at kurdistan24.net ...
And he will convey this directly to Trump. No translation will be necessary.
One of the Changes Trump brought with him to the White House is the brake away from letting Career State Department officials "literally run" the US foreign policy.
Pompeo has military background that brings the real world to the job.
(note: I still like and respect Rex Tillerson. I did not agree with all of the foreign policy while he was in office. Suspect he did not always agree either.)
Pompeo will be an excellent SOS. Hope the ‘RAT attempts to derail his nomination don’t succeed.
Concur.
Agree.
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