U.S. President Donald Trump defended, in a press interview, his decision in 2019 to withdraw his country's troops from areas controlled by Syrian Kurds on the Turkish border, according to the White House website.

“Everyone described my decision to pull American troops out of northern Syria, near the Turkish border as horrific, but the border is in a normal situation,” he said, adding that “they (Turkey and Syria) have been guarding their borders for 2,000 years. Why do we suddenly have thousands of our forces there? To protect the borders of Turkey and Syria?”

The President of the United States added: A year ago, I returned the troops home and I was blamed. But nothing happened; only they now take care of their borders.

Referring to the presence of U.S. forces in Syrian Kurdish-controlled oil fields, Trump said the US took over oil and would take care of the Kurds in relation to the same oil and the issue of withdrawal.

The U.S. president also said that the number of soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq has decreased. He said “the number of troops in Afghanistan has decreased to 7,000, and in Iraq it has lessened to 4,000, which is a sign of good progress.”

Reporter’s code: 50101