i think the pkk and the pyd overlap heavily. there is some separation but it was not enough to satisfy nato ally turkey. this was something that many of us au coming. it was an inevitability personally i think it -- my hope at the time was that it was going to be more manageable, that we had more time. sometimes general knows much better than i do, i never served in the military other than rotc training in college which doesn't count, sometimes you're sent into a meeting or situation to stall. you need time. the u.s. needed time to try and work this out so that turkey and the ypg would not be antagonized and the assad regime -- in iran, i'm not pointing at assad -- he only wrote the great book on isis, that was the challenge and ambassador jeffrey got thrust into the middle of that and hustling as you know to try and head that off. the problem was, of course, that the mission of militarily defeating isis and then keeping isis down became two different things. defeating isis, was the by, with and through campaign, keeping isis do

other aspect, turkey regards the pkk as an existential threat. the united states presents a challenge. the trouble administration inherited a policy that it did not make. we are democracy and we shift every ford eight years. we inherited the policy for the , thed states back to ypg ypg is the military wing of the pyd which is the syrian wing of the pkk. leaders went to pyd litter and the ypg and said if you want to spin off the pkk and not antagonize the turks, you have to do it. you really need to spin off and become your own mast is. there were a lot of things that wait on that. i first and foremost was the nature of the organization. overlap heavily. some separation but not enough to satisfy nato ally. of us sawmething many coming. it was an inevitability. time was that would be more manageable. -- i'ves in general never served in the military other than so are you see training in college -- and sometimes your sin to a situation to stall. you need time. the u.s. needed time to try to work this out so that turkey and the ypg would not antagoniz

i think the pkk and the pyd overlap heavily. there is some separation, but it was not enough to satisfy nato ally turkey. and this was something that i think many of us saw coming. it was an inevitability personally. my hope was that it was going to be more manageable. that we had more time. sometimes -- and general kimmet knows this better than i do. i have never served in the military other than rotc training in college and that doesn't count. sometimes you're ascended into a meeting or a situation to stall. you need time. and the u.s. needed time to try and work this out so that turkey and the wpg would not be antagonized and the ultimate victors of this would not be isis. and the assad regime -- and iran. i'm not pointing at hasad. he wrote the great book on isis. that's been the challenge. he's been hustling, as you know, to try and head that off. but the problem was, of course, that the mission of militarily defeating isis and then keeping isis down became sort of two different things. in the one sense of militarily defeat

he said he would crush the empire of the ypg-pkk.o far it has been easy for the turks not to maneuver in syria. the military campaigns have been rather successful. going after the ypg in the eastern part of syria, in that situation is a risk. i think at the moment he tries to politically and rhetorically when the fight, and he can tell his followers, look how i have embarrassed and defeated the united states. i haven't backed off against them. i think that is a victory politically. brent: we talk so many times about syria and if the u.s. has a strategy there. when you heard the news that the u.s. president had said he was pulling all u.s. forces out, did you think that it was something that was going to happen in the near future? daniel: it's easy to say i was not surprised. we have discussed this in the studio before. i've talked to a number of his officials that clearly said they want to pullout. they were not really clear if it was going to happen in the next couple of months or the next year. they remained ambiguous about it. the

the pkk that's three turkish kurdish insurgent group and the islamic state group. the question is is this the lost world. it now looks as if america is going to take about four three to four months to withdraw from syria. and back needs plenty of time for further negotiations between turkey and washington. testimony mahakam responded that joining us a little althea from ankara. donald trump a shuttle to make a speech about border security at three am paris time the us president will. of course be speaking in washington he promised to construct along the border with mexico throughout his campaign. seems to drop the pledge to mexico this five billion dollar project. trump's speech comes at a time and sounds of the migrants are at the us mexican border seeking to enter the united states. many within the media a questioning whether the speech should be taken ali give trumps pven propensity for telling lies. exaggerating when addressing the nation and the world. donald trump is a us presidents like no other he has frequently been caught on tape making false or misleadin

in syria are different from the pkk and that is the difference.for which country? when it comes to priorities and fighting against the kurdish groups, thatis fighting against the kurdish groups, that is more important for turkey than fighting against islamic state because of the situation in syria. the kurdish groups share controls with the few on the syrian —— share controls on the syrian side of the border, so the priorities and the definitions for the allies are different and when they talk about the anti—terrorism campaign in syria they are talking about different things. while pompeo is dealing with the turkey row, the us secretary of state's middle east tour continues. he's in muscat in oman now but spent most of the day in riyadh. he met king salman and crown prince mohammed bin salman. we're told they talked about accountability forjamal khashoggi's murder and yemen peace talks. the bbc‘s barabara plett usher was in riyadh, too. he raided several regional issues including yemen but the interesting thing was how he deals with the crisis of

washington to take back weapons from the pkk and another terror group. has reiterated its plans to ensure border security and stability. >> secretary of state mike pompeo was also in the middle news nd held a joint conference in aman with jordan's foreign minister and continued to outline plans for u.s. to withdraw from syria. cable satellite corp 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> good afternoon. there will be translation. >> welcome to jordan, which comes at a very important time. regional aspects to achieve the agenda. you have already conducted truthful conversations on in forcing our mutual relationship on security defense. to influence cooperation with the usa, which is an ally and we appreciate the support, not to mention particularly the five-year program endorsed by the trump administration and participated to great extent in helping us to face our economic hardships and not to mention our syrian brothers and sisters. thank you, your ex

these images there is no difference between the pkk ypg he y. de and die. you'll. the united states has been a guarantor of security and not just for the kurds. what risks are posed by an american pullout? what risks indeed matthew after this a suggestion of the us could possibly pull out of syria they've withdrawn from the nuclear pact with a round the global climate to cold? trade to a trade pacts with asia germany. has been bemoaning that's been talking about collapse of american leadership how concerned are you. for the giant vacuum well i don't really see the giant vacuum to be honest i mean i you know the united states is still here they still have i think about forty thousand troops stationed. in germany and and for the past seventy years the united states is guaranteed the security of this country and continues to do so it has been a pretty good. deal for germany actually because they haven't had to spend that much on the military they have the security guarantee and not only that they've been able to tap the american market relatively unfettered it's a it

there is no single difference between the pkk, the syrian kurdish ypg and daesh.ashpoint in the ongoing civil war held by different factions. turkey has threatened to conduct an operation on the territory lying east of the river euphrates, an area held by the american—backed syrian democratic forces comprising predominantly of kurds. known as the sdf, they also hold territory to the west, around the city of manbij, and turkey wants them to move out of there too. feeling abandoned by the us and threatened by the turks, kurds started leaving the area. their leaders sought reassurances from russia and the assad regime, forcing washington to consider its withdrawal strategy and timetable. the first round of talks with ankara and washington ended abruptly, with no clear winner in sight. it seems the withdrawal could take longer than initially thought. selin girit, bbc news, istanbul. it's the year of elections across the asia—pacific region including in australia, indonesia and the philippines. but how democratic are these countries? an annual survey — released here in

there is no single difference between the pkk, the syrian kurdish ypg and daesh.mains a key flashpoint in the ongoing civil war held by different factions. turkey has threatened to conduct an operation on the territory east of the year the review phrack —— the river euphrates, an area held by the american backed syrian democratic forces from prized mostly kurds. known as the sdf, they hold territory to the west around the city of manbij and turkey wants them to move out of there as well. feeling abandoned by the us and threatened by the turks, kurds started leaving the area. their leaders sought reassurances from ross and the side regime, forcing washington to consider their withdrawal strategy game. —— russia. the first round of talks with ankara and washington ended abruptly with no clear winner in sight. it seems the withdrawal could take longer than initially thought. a meme from china is warming hearts all over the world. it's called ‘four generations under one roof‘, and the concept is simple, with each video beginning with a young child calling out to their

views that kurdish fighting group as america's main ally to be terrorists, and one of the same with the pkkor whom turkey has been for decades at war and that being a kurdish separatist organization. and we heard from the adviser ibrahim cologne while meeting heeer in turkey, and that press conference did not happen because he had to go back to washington with the trump remarks happening later today. and there is a whole potential le for the bolton and erdogan meeting that did not take place and cause d a stir. the turks are saying that it is never officially on the books, and it had been requested but never confirmed, but this is viewed a snub following erdogan's reaction to bolton's comment comments, and this is really perhaps indicative of how the current u.s. administration attempts the do business, and sending out mixed messages and mixed messages coming from are the edadministration and mixed messages going to the various allies and allel leaving behind a kconvoluted situation to say the least. >> contradict are ri messaory m >>> and now, in china, we have a surprise three-day sukant

there is no single difference between the pkk, the ypg, pyd, and dash. >> basically saying no differenceetween ices and those forces in the syria working with the u.s. that it may cordon it with other countries, but it will not ask permission from anyone. the turkish president also says he reach an understanding with president trump on u.s. withdrawal from syria and that now different voices in the trump administration are emerging. erdogan says his country is moving forward on trump's announcement last month that all forces are leaving syria and leaving now. the national security council says that bolton met with his turkish counterpart, so they had a productive discussion, and they look forward to their ongoing cooperation. protecting syrian kurdish fighters is just one of the conditions they have set on the withdrawal from syria, including the defeat of vices and protecting against iranian influence there. all seemingly adding time to with the president has described as a quick withdrawal. now the president is saying the withdrawal from syria for u.s. forces will be prudent. secretary

one of the goals of the struggle against the pkk and the offshoots is to save them from the tyranny andn the withdrawal, it's still unclear what timetable if any the administration is looking at, here. especially as president has said -- and he said it as part of his announcement -- that he wanted to extract the u.s. and his forces from what he has described as endless wars. harris, back to you. >> harris: rich edson at the state department. thank you, good to see you. florida congressman ted yoho is a member of the house foreign affairs committee and drinking member of the subcommittee on asia and the pacific. good to see you on the program. thank you for being here. i have so many questions for you. i want to start with this. >> great to see you, happy new year. >> harris: think you come right back at you. what is our mission in syria? >> [laughs] therein lies the problem. there is not a clear mission when we went into syria. i agree with president trump. we have seen his m.o. before. he will say stuff, he gets people's attention, and then you negotiate. it's like north korea, when he

there is not a single difference between the pkk, ypg, pyd, and dash.ng with syrian rebels who turkey backs. there's other rebels in the stronghold of idlib — butjihadists are also present. the blue area is controlled by the syrian government. and the majority of the country is under government control. the islamic state group has hardly any territory now, which is one of the reasons donald trump has declared victory over is. well if you want a measure of turkey's displeasure at the shift in the us position, president erdogan refused to meetjohn bolton. the plan was they'd talk about the us withdrawal and then hold a news conference, but that was cancelled without explanation. sebastian usher is a middle east analyst here in the bbc newsroom. i think what was quite striking was just how bad they reacted. i mean john bolton was in ankara at the moment the president erdogan said he had made a serious mistake. although both sides said that they had not in a meeting that was cancelled, they had no interest in meeting john bolton while he was there. essentia

turkey will see the pkk and related kurdish groups as the main threat to their sovereignty. president erdogan u.s. turkey recommendations will be important but not decisive for ankara. in iraq, the underlying political and economic factors that facilitiesed isis persist. an iraqi shia militant to further entrench in the role of the state with the assistance of iran will increase the threat to u.s. personnel. in yemen where 75% of the population is reliant on foreign assistance neither side of the conflict seems committed to end fighting. and the humanitarian impact of the conflict in 2019 will further compound already acute problems. in saudi arabia public support for the royal family appears to remain high even in the wake of the murder of journalist jamaul khashoggi and the kingdom's involvement in the yemen conflict. in south asia the region will be potentialed on turmoil surrounding afghanistan's presidential election, ongoing negotiation was the taliban and taliban's regional attack we assess near the afghan government more taliban will be able to gain a strategic advan

the turks regard this kurdish's errant defense forces and outlawed pkk.we were allowing the kurds to take the fight to isis anthem is so critical trained and assessed. so it remains to be seen. i would invoke the late charles krauthammer, the heroes killed in this attack were over there eliminating threats so that we wouldn't have to have those threats visited on our shores here i in the united states. >> bill: prior to yesterday in syria, only to cocasualties back to 22014. that is remarkable success in terms of safety they are, but the statement from pompeo when the u.s. retreat, chaos follows. are you linking that statement from last week about what we saw yesterday? >> well, i think one thing i would say for sure is that isis has not been defeated. i think there were sleeper cells and as well as other places in syria. we know roughly 20, 30,000 members of ices in iraq and syria battle space. concern has been they would melt into insurgency and to really come back that you need boots on the ground. we also know when they have ungoverned space they will

he urged washington to take back weapons from the pkk and another terror group. turkey has reiterated its plans to ensure border security and regional stability. >> secretary of state mike pompeo was also in the middle east and held a joint news conference in aman with jordan's foreign minister and continued to outline plans for u.s. to withdraw from syria.

during tuesday's meeting, they urged washington to take back weapons from the pkk and pyg groups. >> secretary of state mike -- turkey has reiterated that plans to ensure border security and regional stability. >> secretary of state mike pompeo was also in the middle east. he held a joint is conference with jordan's foreign minister and continue to withdraw from syria. >> good afternoon. >> the secretary here in jordan, there will be translation. welcome to jordan, which comes at a very important time.