Subject: Morning Brief: Trump Warns Turkey Over U.S. Kurdish Allies in Syria
From: "Foreign Policy" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2019 07:26:35 -0600 (CST)

Trump Warns Turkey Over U.S. Kurdish Allies in Syria

If you have problems viewing this email, view it in a browser. Please feel free to forward it to a friend.

MORNING BRIEF

Today's Global News from Foreign Policy

SUBSCRIBE TO FP

Follow Us:

01/14/2019

01/14/2019

TOP NEWS

Trump Warns Turkey Over U.S. Kurdish Allies in Syria

Top News: U.S. President Donald Trump warned Turkey of economic ruin if it attacked the United States’ Kurdish allies in Syria after the U.S. troops he has ordered to withdraw leave the country.

In a tweet, he said Washington would “devastate Turkey economically” if it attacks Kurds, and called for creating a 20-mile safe zone, though didn’t elaborate on what the safe zone entailed or its location. He also warned Kurdish fighters not to “provoke” any confrontation with Turkey.

Trump’s surprise announcement last month to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria shocked and confused some allies and sparked the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Ankara views Kurdish fighters in Syria, fighting the Islamic State alongside U.S. troops, as extensions of Kurdish terrorist groups operating in Turkey.

Ibrahim Kalin, the Turkish president’s spokesman, responded to the warning on Twitter, saying “Terrorists can’t be your partners & allies.” He added Turkey “fights against terrorists, not Kurds.”

Brexit: The European Union is expecting the United Kingdom to ask for an extension on its exit from the EU until July. British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan faces stiff opposition in Parliament, and passing any Brexit bill in time to exit before the original deadline of March 29 may be difficult.

AFRICA

•  The Southern African Development Community called for the Democratic Republic of the Congo to negotiate a government of national unity after disputed elections.

•  Burkina Faso extended a national state of emergency to confront a spate of deadly attacks from Islamist militants in the country’s north.

•  South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called the high rates of rape and sexual violence in his country a “national crisis.”

AMERICAS

•  South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top Trump ally, urged the president to reopen the government for several weeks while seeking a deal on border security following the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

•  Juan Guaido, the new head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, which has clashed with President Nicolás Maduro, was briefly detained by police.

•  Bolivia captured and extradited to Italy a former Italian communist militant who was convicted of murder and escaped prison in 1981.

ASIA

•  Twenty-one miners were killed and 66 rescued after a mine collapsed in northern China.

•  Chinese President Xi Jinping is reportedly planning to visit North Korea in April.

•  Indonesian officials say they have recovered the cockpit voice recorder for a Lion Air flight that crashed in the ocean in October 2018, killing all 189 people on the plane.

EUROPE

•  The mayor of the Polish city of Gdansk, a well-known pro-LGBT and pro-refugee politician, was stabbed while he was on stage at a charity concert and sent to a hospital in critical condition.

•  Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras plans to call a confidence vote in parliament after his defense minister resigned over a deal on a name dispute with neighboring Macedonia, which will become “North Macedonia” under the deal.

•  Four people were killed and dozens injured after a gas explosion in central Paris over the weekend.

MIDDLE EAST

•  Gulf nations are poised to reopen diplomatic relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government after eight years of civil war.

•  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on a trip to the Middle East that the diplomatic dispute between Qatar and other Gulf nations has dragged on for too long.

•  Iran’s nuclear program chief said his country is exploring new uranium enrichment processes for reactors.

- By Robbie Gramer

(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Register at ForeignPolicy.com to receive Morning Brief and other FP newsletters.

TRENDING ON FOREIGNPOLICY.COM

The Shutdown Has Foggy Bottom in a Funk

by Robbie Gramer

The Belarusian President Won’t Go Down Without a Fight

by Amy Mackinnon

Spy vs. Spy, El Chapo Edition

by Elias Groll

This email was sent to [email-masked] by [email-masked].

UPDATE PROFILE

UNSUBSCRIBE

PRIVACY POLICY

ADVERTISE

GROUP SALES AND LICENSING

Foreign Policy Magazine is published by the FP Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company. All contents ©2019 The Slate Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Foreign Policy, 11 DUPONT CIRCLE NW, SUITE 600, WASHINGTON DC 20036

color
000000
conversation-id
14395
date-last-viewed
0
date-received
1547472414
flags
8590195841
remote-id
313549