Trump defends Syria withdrawal, says US should protect its own borders first

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (MENA) - US President Donald Trump has defended his decision to withdraw troops from north-eastern Syria, telling conservative Christian activists that the US should prioritise protecting its own borders, CNN reported.

"Let them have their borders, but I don't think our soldiers should be there for the next 50 years guarding a border between Turkey and Syria when we can't guard our own borders at home," Trump said in a speech to the Value Voters Summit in Washington, an annual conference of religious conservatives.

Trump was elected in 2016 running on a hard-line immigration policy and has sought to make legal and illegal immigration to the US more difficult, pushing for a wall to be built on the US-Mexico border among other measures.

After a phone call between Trump and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan last Sunday, Trump made an abrupt policy change and ordered out US forces in north-east Syria who had been fighting with Kurdish YPG militia against Daesh. Within days Turkey began an offensive against the YPG, which it says is a terrorist group backing Kurdish rebels in Turkey.