SAY WHAT?

Turkey: Trump Said U.S. Will Stop Arming Syrian Kurds

U.S. officials were reportedly caught off guard.

President Donald Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the United States will stop arming Syrian Kurdish fighters, according to Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who claimed he was present while the two presidents talked on the phone. “Mr. Trump clearly stated that he had given clear instructions and that the [Syrian Kurds] won’t be given arms, and that this nonsense should have ended a long time ago,” Cavusoglu said. Turkey considers them to be a terrorist group. The Associated Press reports that U.S. officials were caught off guard by the news. Later Friday, the White House issued a readout of the call between Trump and Erdogan stating that the two leaders discussed “pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria, now that the battle of Raqqa is complete and we are progressing into a stabilization phase to ensure that ISIS cannot return.”