Trump claims Turkeys Erdogan directed rebels behind unfriendly takeover of Syria

HADERA, Israel — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday claimed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was behind the rapid fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria last week, as Israeli officials cautioned the US to keep a watchful eye on the Sunni authoritarian leader.Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump declared that the “very smart” Erdogan directed the rebellion that led to the overthrow of Syria’s brutal Assad regime on Dec.8, noting that the rebellion was “another way to fight.””Nobody knows who the other side is, but I do.

You know it is Turkey, OK? Turkey is the one behind it,” he said.“And those people that went in are controlled by Turkey, and that’s OK.”Asked whether Trump would remove the 900 American troops currently in Syria when he takes office next month, the president-elect reminded journalists that “nobody knows what the final outcome is going to be in the region.””I don’t think that I want to have our soldiers killed, but I don’t think that will happen now anyway, because the one [Assad regime] side has been decimated,” Trump said.“I think Turkey is very smart.

[Erdogan] is a very smart guy, he’s very tough,” Trump said, “but Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost.”While the overthrow of the Assad regime was generally welcomed by the Western world, Israeli officials on Monday warned the US against celebrating the presumed ascension of Turkish power in Syria.Israel’s military is currently fighting to eliminate weapons depots in southern Syria to stabilize the region and protect its citizens near its border with the Islamic country, analysts have said.“Erdogan is a disciple of the Muslim Brotherhood.He is an Islamist radical in Turkey.

He is behind Syria’s rebels that came from al Qaeda, from Daesh, from other very radical groups,” Israeli scholar and former Knesset member Ruth Wasserman Lande told The Post in Israel on Monday.However, Turkey is ...