US president says Turkey has informed the United States that it will make the ceasefire in Syria ‘permanent’. US President Donald Trump has announced that Turkey said it is stopping combat and making a ceasefire in northern Syria permanent, prompting the United States to lift recent sanctions it had imposed on Turkish imports in response to the violence.
“The sanctions will be lifted unless something happens that we are not happy with,” Trump said on Wednesday in a special address from the White House where he also spoke sceptically about the meaning of “permanent” in “that part of the world”.
Earlier this month, Trump halted negotiations on a $100bn trade deal with Turkey, raised steel tariffs back up to 50 percent and imposed sanctions on three senior Turkish officials and Turkey’s defence and energy ministries.
The president has been under fire for abruptly withdrawing US troops from northern Syria, with many accusing him of abandoning Kurdish forces, who had been one of the US’s main allies in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS).
Following the withdrawal, Turkey launched an offensive against Kurdish forces in the region. Last week, Turkey agreed to a five-day ceasefire to allow Kurdish forces to withdraw.
Turkey-Russia deal
The ceasefire ended as Turkey and Russia struck a deal in Sochi. Under the agreement, Russia and Syria will “facilitate the removal” from the border region of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters. Ankara will also control a 32km-wide (20-mile) stretch between the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain, which covers 120km (75 miles) of the Turkey-Syria border, the deal said.
Turkey had long said it wanted to establish a 444km long (276-mile) and 32km wide (20-mile) “safe zone”. However, during the ceasefire, the US and the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said the withdrawal would only cover the 120km (75-mile) area between Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad – something that was also confirmed by the agreement reached in Sochi.
Russia on Wednesday warned Kurdish forces to quickly withdraw from the Turkey-Syria border or be crushed by the Turkish army. Moscow added that the US “betrayed and abandoned” Syrian fighters. Russia is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main military ally.
Trump said some troops would remain in Syria’s oil fields despite a broader US withdrawal from the country.
“We have secured the oil and, therefore, a small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil,” he said. Trump also warned that “crippling” sanctions could be reimposed if Turkey failed to honour its obligation to protect religious and ethnic minorities.
Source: www.aljazeera.com
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
