Ariana News Agency-<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Defending his decision to clear the way for a Turkish military operation against America\u2019s Kurdish allies in northern Syria, announced in a White House statement on Sunday night, Mr. Trump said it was \u201ctime for us to get out\u201d and let others \u201cfigure the situation out.\u201d<\/p>\n But his move touched off a broad rebuke by Republicans, including some of his staunchest allies, in some of the sharpest language they have leveled against a Trump foreign policy decision. And in response, the president pivoted sharply and said he would restrain Turkey.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I\u2019ve done before!),\u201d the president wrote on Twitter. He did not explain what would be off limits, but aides insisted he had not given a green light to an invasion.<\/p>\n A Defense Department official said the president\u2019s threat to destroy the Turkish economy should make clear that Mr. Trump had not approved a Turkish attack on the Kurds. \u201cThe Department of Defense made clear to Turkey \u2014 as did the president \u2014 that we do not endorse a Turkish operation in northern Syria,\u201d Jonathan Hoffman, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement. \u201cThe U.S. armed forces will not support or be involved in any operation.\u201d<\/p>\n But Republicans were not sure. Even after Mr. Trump recalibrated his message, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, warned against \u201ca precipitous withdrawal\u201d that would benefit Russia, Iran, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the Islamic State. Mr. McConnell sharply urged the president to \u201cexercise American leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Trump threw Middle East policy into turmoil on Monday with a series of conflicting signals after his vow to withdraw American forces from the region touched off an uprising among congressional Republicans and protests by America\u2019s allies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_mat_hreflang_tags":[],"addvideo":"","video_duration":"","farsit":"","target":"0","top_stories":"0","top":"0"},"categories":[305],"tags":[137,72,135],"class_list":["post-4211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","tag-middle-east","tag-syria","tag-trump"],"acf":{"myctype":"change","target":false,"top_stories":false,"top":false,"farsit":""},"yoast_head":"\n