Trump praised Erdogan for a ceasefire in Syria that Turkey says is 'not a ceasefire'

• President Donald Trump on Thursday praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for agreeing to a deal the US is characterizing as a ceasefire in Syria.
• Turkey promptly disputed this, and said it's "not a ceasefire."
• This came after Vice President Mike Pence sat down for talks with Erdogan and declared they'd reached a deal for a ceasefire that would allow Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area.
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President Donald Trump on Thursday praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for agreeing to an "amazing" ceasefire in Syria that Turkey's foreign minister explicitly stated is "not a ceasefire."

"I just want to thank and congratulate President Erdogan. He's a friend of mine, and I'm glad we didn't have a problem, because frankly, he's a hell of a leader," Trump said to reporters.

"When those guns start shooting, they tend to do things, but I will tell you, on behalf of the US I want to thank Turkey, I want to thank all of the people that have gotten together and made this happen," Trump said. "I want to thank everybody. And the other thing I want to thank as a group, I want to thank the Kurds, because they were incredibly happy with this solution. This is a solution that really - well it saved their lives, frankly. It saved their lives."

Trump said it's a "great day for civilization" and a "great day for the Kurds."

This came after Vice President Mike Pence sat down for talks with Erdogan and declared they'd reached a deal for a ceasefire that would allow Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area.

Pence at a press conference said it will be a pause in military operations while the US facilitates the withdrawal of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the dominant militia in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

"And once that is completed, Turkey has agreed to a permanent ceasefire and the United States of America will work with Turkey - will work with nations around the world - to make sure peace and stability are the order of the day in this safe zone," Pence added.

But Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during a news conference said, "This is not a ceasefire."

"We will pause the operation for 120 hours in order for the terrorists to leave," Cavusoglu said. "We will only stop the operation if our conditions are met."