Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, met Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Tuesday. The subject of this urgent summit was Syria — or how each side can profit from the turmoil unleashed by US president Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from the north-east of the country, allowing a Turkish incursion two weeks ago.

A US delegation to Ankara led by Vice-President Mike Pence subsequently approved a Turkish “safe zone” in northern Syria — a buffer Mr Erdogan has long wanted south of Turkey’s frontier. In exchange, Washington pledged to get the Syrian Kurd allies that Mr Trump had just abandoned to pull back their fighters. The Kurds were the strike force in the successful campaign against the Isis caliphate, but are seen by Ankara as a threat because of their links to Turkish Kurd separatists of the PKK.

Financial Times