MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2019) The readiness of US President Donald Trump to strike Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), amid current tensions over Turkey's operation in Northern Syria, is "unprecedented," member of the Russian parliament's upper house Alexei Pushkov said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNBC on Monday that Trump was fully prepared to order US military action against Turkey if necessary amid the current middle East crisis. Pompeo would not specify in the interview what actions might provoke a US military response.
"From the unprecedented: according to Pompeo, if necessary, Trump is ready for military action against Turkey (!). There hasn't been a time when the United States threatened to strike a NATO ally," Pushkov wrote on Twitter late on Monday.
The lawmaker added that, based on his impressions of recent announcements made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it was unlikely that Washington would be able to frighten Ankara.
Last week, Erdogan and US Vice President Mike Pence agreed on a ceasefire in northern Syria to allow the withdrawal of Kurdish militia from the area, where Turkey started a military operation earlier this month.
Both Ankara and the Kurds have accused each other of violating the truce. Turkey considers US-backed Kurds to be linked to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), branded a terrorist organization by Ankara.
