Syrian surprise: How Trump's phone call changed the war

In the phone call two weeks ago, Trump had been expected to deliver a standard warning to the Turkish president over his plan to launch a crossborder attack targeting U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, U.S. officials say. Instead, in the course of the conversation Trump reshaped U.S. policy in the Middle East, abandoning a quarter of Syrian territory and handing Ankara the job of finishing off Islamic State in Syria. "Trump asked: 'If we withdraw our soldiers, can you clean up ISIS?'", a Turkish official told Reuters.

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