Joe Biden Slams Trump's Decision To Withdraw Troops From Syria As 'Shameful'

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2019) Joe Biden, US Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president, has slammed US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria as shameful, stressing that he would not do it if he was the US leader.

Trump announced on October 7 that the US had started pulling out troops from Syria's north. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on October 13 that the country would withdraw around 1,000 more servicemen from the area � where Turkey launched on October 9 an offensive against the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS, banned in Russia) and Kurdish militia � in order for the US military not to end up trapped between rival armies.

"It's been the most shameful thing any president has done in modern history � excuse me, in terms of foreign policy," Biden said during the debate of Democratic presidential candidates, as quoted by Vox.

Biden stressed that he would not make such a decision if he was the country's president.

"I would not have withdrawn the troops and would not have withdrawn the additional thousand troops ... that are in retreat being fired on by [Syrian President Bashar] Assad's people and the president of the United States saying if those ISIS folks escape from the prisons they're in, they'll only go to Europe and won't affect us," Biden said.

The front-running Democratic candidate added that he would instead make it "real clear" to Assad that Turkey was "the real problem", and then have a "real lockdown conversation" with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"I would want those thousand troops to be protected under air cover, having to withdraw under fire, make it clear they're not going anywhere and have them protected and work my way back toward what in fact needs to be done, protecting those Kurds. They lost their lives. This is shameful! Shameful what this man has done!" Biden went on to say.

US lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the Senate introduced on Tuesday a joint resolution opposing Trump's decision to withdraw troops.

The Trump administration has hit Turkey with sanctions in recent days over the offensive in Syria, aimed at clearing Turkey's border with Syria of Kurdish militias, labeled as terrorists by Ankara. The US president has said, meanwhile, that by pulling troops from Syria he is keeping his campaign promise to end Washington's involvement in "endless wars."