US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Monday that he had spoken with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and that she backed bipartisan sanctions against Turkey over its military operation “Peace Spring” against Kurdish militants in north-eastern Syria.
I will be working across party lines in a bicameral fashion to draft sanctions and move quickly, appreciating President Trump’s willingness to work with the Congress. The Speaker indicated to me that time was of the essence.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 14, 2019
The senator commented on the recent operation that Turkey launched against Kurdish militants in northern Syria on 9 October.
Earlier in the day, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin stated on Twitter ''we will not stop until we reach our goals''.
"Those who kept silent when thousands of civilians were killed in [the Iraqi city of] Mosul, [Syrian cities of] Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor and who are now panicking in the face of Operation Peace Spring’s success, urge us to cease the operation and threaten to impose sanctions on Turkey. But we will not stop until we reach our goals", Kalin wrote on his Twitter account''.
Musul, Rakka ve Deyrizzor yerle bir edilir ve binlerce sivil öldürülürken seslerini çıkartmayalar, #BarisPinariHarekati’nin başarısı karşısında panik halinde “operasyonu durdurun” çağrıları yapıyor, Türkiye’yi yaptırımlarla tehdit ediyor.
— Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) October 14, 2019
Hedeflerimize ulaşana kadar durmak yok.
The Turkish offensive has been widely criticised by the international community, with the European Union unanimously condemning the move and asking all the member states to stop selling arms to Ankara.
The Turkish Defence Ministry stated a day earlier that its forces had neutralised 525 members of Kurdish militants that Turkey designates as terrorists. Erdogan has, meanwhile, announced that two Turkish soldiers and 16 Syrian National Army fighters had been killed.
The Syrian government views the operation as a violation of Syria's territorial integrity, a position that has since been echoed by Russia and a number of Arab and Western nations.
