On Sunday, President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone and discussed a "safe zone" in northeastern Syria the two countries had agreed to create, the Turkish government said, expressing frustration with the pace of U.S. cooperation. Erdogan also said he accepted Trump's invitation to visit the White House in November. On Saturday, Erdogan said a Turkish military incursion into northeastern Syria was "imminent."
Turkey has threatened to invade the area before, hoping to resettle up to two million Syrian refugees and clear the region of the Kurdish YPG militia, which halted the Islamic State's advance then defeated ISIS with U.S. air support. The presence of U.S. troops, stationed with the allied YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has held Ankara back. On Sunday night, Trump apparently gave Erdogan the green light to invade.
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