US Vice President Mike Pence met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday to push for a ceasefire in Syria after Ankara rebuffed international pressure to halt its deadly offensive against Kurdish forces.
The visit came a day after Erdogan vowed to press ahead with Turkey's operation, which has been facilitated by the withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria, claiming hundreds of lives and displacing hundreds of thousands.
Ahead of the key trip, an extraordinary letter from US President Donald Trump emerged in which he warned Erdogan: "Don't be a fool."
In the missive to Erdogan dated October 9 -- whose authenticity was confirmed to AFP by the White House -- Trump wrote: "You don't want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don't want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy -- and I will."