(@rukhshanmirpk)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2019) US President Donald Trump threatened to impose economic measures against Turkey if Ankara decides to attack the Syrian Kurds.

"Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds. Create 20 mile safe zone. Likewise, do not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey," Trump wrote on Twitter.

He also listed Russia, Iran and Syria as the main beneficiaries of the long-term US policy to destroy the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, or ISIS, banned in Russia) in Syria.

"Starting the long overdue pullout from Syria while hitting the little remaining ISIS territorial caliphate hard, and from many directions. Will attack again from existing nearby base if it reforms. ... We also benefit but it is now time to bring our troops back home.

Stop the ENDLESS WARS!" the US president concluded.

In early December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey was ready to launch a military operation against Kurdish fighters on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River as well as in Syria's Manbij, located near the Turkish border, if the United States did not remove the militia from there. After a phone conversation with Trump on December 14, Erdogan said that the start of the operation would be postponed. After the same phone call, Trump announced that US troops would be withdrawn from Syria.

On Friday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar reiterated that the country was preparing for this military operation, claiming that it would be launched "at the right time."