Reuters. President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday (December 16) he would talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy about bringing the war in Ukraine to an end, saying he is troubled by images of carnage from the conflict. "It's got to stop," Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump did not give a direct answer when asked whether he believed Ukraine should cede territory to Russia as part of a negotiated settlement to the nearly three-year-old war. Trump said much of the territory in dispute has been reduced to rubble and would take a century to recover from."I mean, there are cities that there's not a building standing, it's a demolition site," he said. He also said he had been shown pictures of body-strewn battlefields that reminded him of some of the grisly photographs from the 1861-1865 American Civil War.
Referring to the situation in Gaza Strip, Trump said he had a "very good talk" with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about the war in Gaza and reiterated his threat that "all hell is going to break out" if Hamas does not release its hostages by Jan. 20, the day Trump takes office. Trump described it as a "recap call". "As you know, I gave a warning that if these hostages aren't back home by that date, all hell is going to break out," he said.
Trump said that Turkey will "hold the key" to what happens in Syria, where rebels backed by Ankara toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
Making his first comments on how he views the NATO ally's role in post-conflict Syria, Trump praised what he described as Turkey's "major military force" that he said "has not been worn out with war."
By supporting the rebels, "Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost," Trump told a press conference.
"Right now, Syria has a lot of, you know, there's a lot of indefinites ... I think Turkey is going to hold the key to Syria," Trump said. Asked what he will do with those troops, Trump was vague, pointing instead to the strength of Turkey's military and highlighting his relationship with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. "Erdogan is somebody I got along with great ... He's built a very strong, powerful army," Trump said.
Appearing to allude to Turkey's Ottoman past, which included control over modern day Syria, Trump added: "They've wanted it for thousands of years, and he got it, and those people that went in are controlled by Turkey, and that's OK."
