Trump speaks with Erdogan on phone over Syria

IANS  |  Washington 

US has said that he had a telephonic conversation with Turkish Tayyip Erdogan over issues related to

"We discussed (IS), our mutual involvement in Syria, and the slow and highly coordinated pullout of US troops from the area," Trump said on Sunday on his account, describing the phone conversation as "long and productive", reported.

The two leaders also discussed expanded trade between the two countries in their phone call.

Trump agreed to withdraw US troops from during his phone conversation with Erdogan on December 14, the media had reported citing officials.

The State Department cleared to purchase a package of Patriot on December 18, with an estimated cost of $3.5 billion.

The announced on December 19 that it started returning US troops home from after claiming a victory in the fight against the IS, without revealing any detailed timetable.

The decision to withdraw US troops in Syria was widely regarded as the last straw for James Mattis' resignation on December 20.

Following Mattis, Brett McGurk, the US for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State (IS), also resigned on December 21, which was another sign of senior officials' objection over the US troops withdrawal from Syria.

The time-frame for US troops withdrawal from war-torn Syria is expected to be 60 days and 100 days, informed sources said.

The US has deployed troops to Syria fighting the IS since 2015, and there are more than 2,000 US soldiers in Syria.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, December 24 2018. 04:02 IST