Retired U.S. General and former NATO Commander Wesley Clark, without citing any evidence, claimed on CNN’s New Day Monday morning that Middle Eastern countries suspect Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may have blackmailed President Donald Trump into withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria.

Last week, President Trump announced that the U.S. is pulling out all 2000 of its troops from Syria, stating it had achieved its objective of defeating ISIS in the civil-war-torn country. “We have won against ISIS. We have beaten them and we have beaten them badly,” the president declared in a video tweeted Wednesday night. “We have taken back the land and now it’s time for our troops to come back home.”

A partial transcript is as follows: