RUSSIA and Turkey reached an agreement Tuesday that would cement their power in Syria, deploying their forces across nearly its entire northeastern border to fill the void left by U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of U.S. forces.

The accord caps a dramatic and swift transformation of the Syrian map unleashed by Trump’s decision two weeks ago to remove the American soldiers.

U.S. troops in Syria fought five years alongside Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria and succeeded in bringing down the rule of the Islamic State group there at the cost of thousands of Kurdish fighters’ lives. Now much of that territory would be handed over to U.S. rivals.

The biggest winners are Turkey and Russia. Turkey would get sole control over areas of the Syrian border captured in its invasion, while Turkish, Russian and Syria government forces would oversee the rest of the border region. America’s former U.S. allies, the Kurdish fighters, are left hoping Moscow and Damascus will preserve some pieces of their autonomy dreams.

Meanwhile, the Americans are stumbling out of Syria in a withdrawal that has proved chaotic, its extent and goals seeming to shift on the fly as they grasp to keep some influence on the ground. In the latest hitch, Iraq’s military said Tuesday the U.S. troops coming out of Syria do not have permission to stay in Iraq, contradicting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s statement a day earlier that they would remain there to fight the Islamic State group. Esper has also spoken of keeping some troops in eastern Syria to protect oil fields held by the Kurds.

Trump ordered the U.S. troop pullout Oct. 7 with little consultation with advisers and in the face of heavy criticism, even by Republican allies. It opened the way for Turkey to launch a long-threatened invasion of northeastern Syria two days later to drive out the U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters. (SD-Agencies)