On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a deal with Turkey that both experts and Turkey’s own foreign minister say is not really a cease-fire and amounts to giving concessions to Turkey with nothing in return.
HuffPost explained the ramifications of the deal in a piece with the subheadline “Vice President Mike Pence trumpeted the deal as a “cease-fire,” but Turkey disputed that characterization”:
But soon afterward, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu clarified it was a “pause” in an early indication that the agreement remains shaky.
The deal creates a five-day halt to Turkey’s incursion against a Syrian Kurdish militia that was allied with the U.S. in the fight against the so-called Islamic State. It preserves sanctions that Trump placed on Turkey earlier this week but says they will be lifted once the offensive is fully stopped.
The deal represents a major concession to Turkey by agreeing that the country will take over a significant swath of Syria. And it sets up further complications with the Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the YPG, as it agrees they should surrender their heavy weapons. Ankara is wary of the group because of its ties to a rebel group that’s fought the Turkish state called the PKK.
The deal is almost certain to fail, said Brett McGurk, who until the end of last year served as Trump’s top envoy to U.S. partners fighting ISIS.
Some on Fox News are trying to spin the deal as a positive, and various outlets have labeled it a cease-fire.
Fox spins the deal as a win
Fox News contributor Donna Brazile called the deal a “good move, because this was an unmitigated disaster,” adding that Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “went to save the day.”
Fox News strategic analyst Jack Keane: “He made the right move here, obviously. He deserves a lot of credit for it.”
Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner: “The president has accomplished something that he promised the American people -- that he would try to draw down troops and pull us out of endless wars.”
Faulkner also suggested that Trump is simply “putting America First” by “pulling our men and women out of harm's way.”
Fox News contributor Karl Rove said that “it is a pretty amazing accomplishment by Pompeo and Pence to get this cease-fire.”
Other media describe the deal as yielding a cease-fire
Many mainstream outlets just amplified Trump's own obviously absurd lies.
What experts are saying about the deal
In fact, even Turkey’s Foreign Minister said that it was not a cease-fire.
