Turkey’s Erdogan Refuses to Meet With Trump Adviser Bolton

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to meet with U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton and used a prescheduled speech in parliament to tear apart American proposals that a U.S.-backed Kurdish group play a key role in Syria after U.S. troops withdraw.

Turkey has nearly completed all preparations to fight remnants of the Islamic State in Syria in the wake of the planned U.S. pullout and will soon move to “neutralize” all terror threats, Erdogan said Tuesday, addressing members of his ruling AK Party at the parliament in Ankara.

“We will very soon mobilize to eliminate terrorist organizations in Syria,” he said. “If there are other terrorists who would attempt to intervene in our intervention then it is our duty to eliminate them as well,” Erdogan added, in a thinly veiled reference to Syrian Kurdish fighters he wants to push from Turkey’s border.