US President-elect Donald Trump said Turkey holds the key to what happened in Syria, where rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, Reuters reported, quoted by bTA.
Turkey has backed the rebels whose rise to power in Damascus ended the country's 13-year civil war. Turkey opened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, two days after the head of Turkish intelligence visited the Syrian capital.
At a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, during which Trump touched on a wide range of issues, he said Turkey had carried out a hostile takeover in Syria, Agence France-Presse reported.
"Turkey is very intelligent. "She's a smart guy and she's very persistent," Trump said, apparently referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before adding: "Turkey did a hostile takeover without many people being killed. I can say that Assad was a butcher."