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U.S. President Donald Trump expects a “successful meeting” Thursday in Ankara as his vice president and secretary of state push Turkey to halt its offensive in northeastern Syria, while Trump continues to reject that he is responsible for the operation meant to push Kurdish fighters from the border region.

The unconventional and insidious threat U.S. adversaries pose is in the "gray zone," the space between U.S. traditional concepts of a peaceful state of affairs and full-scale war, a Defense Department official said.

"One after another, the commanders who oversaw this nation’s battles in the Middle East have expressed their distaste for the way that President Donald Trump has handled the long-threatened Turkish invasion of Syria."

"Turkey vowed to press ahead with its offensive in northern Syria on Tuesday despite U.S. sanctions and growing calls for it to stop, while Syria’s Russia-backed army moved on the key city of Manbij that was abandoned by U.S. forces."

U.S. President Donald Trump has declared that the Turkish invasion of northeast Syria is "not our problem." In the Oval Office on Wednesday morning, with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at his side, Trump added it is fine for Russia to help and he declared that the Kurds defending their territory inside Syria against the Turkish military are "not angels."

"The first year for the military exercise Defender Pacific will be smaller in size than its sister drill in Europe in 2020, but it will still be one of the largest exercises conducted by the U.S. Army and its partners and allies in the region since Team Spirit drills in South Korea ended in the early 1990s."

"When Syria’s Kurdish fighters, America’s longtime battlefield allies against the Islamic State, announced over the weekend that they were switching sides and joining up with Damascus and Moscow, it seemed like a moment of geopolitical whiplash."

"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected a US call for an immediate ceasefire in northern Syria, saying Turkey's offensive will continue."

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will head a high-level delegation to Turkey to press that country's president to halt his invasion of northeast Syria, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.

"The Trump administration dispatched senior officials to Turkey to press for an end to Ankara’s military offensive in northeastern Syria, as Moscow began to fill a void created by departing U.S. troops."

"The new partnership for the Kurdish fighters may be an intelligence bonanza for Russia and Syria as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have spent years working alongside American commandos gauging tactics, techniques, procedures, equipment, intelligence gathering and even potentially names of operators."

The United States says diplomatic efforts are on "high gear" to press for a cease-fire after Turkey's incursion into northern Syria, as Washington tries to get the situation under control, according to a senior State Department official.

"Turkey’s president has said he would not stop his offensive on northern Syria until 'all our objectives had been achieved', defying US sanctions, a European arms embargo and increasing international isolation."

"Russia has said it will not allow clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces, as Turkey's military offensive in northern Syria continues."

"U.S. forces have played the roll of peacekeeper in the Syrian city of Manbij since its Kurdish-led partner force liberated the city from ISIS fighters in 2016."

"The Syrian fighters vowed to kill "pigs" and "infidels," paraded their Kurdish captives in front of cameras and, in one graphic video, fired several rounds into a man lying on the side of a highway with his hands bound behind his back."

"The administration’s first punitive actions against Turkey and its effort to start talks came amid widespread criticism on Capitol Hill that Mr. Trump’s decision left Kurdish militias that had aided the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State open to attack."

"After fading in the wake of 2014’s Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the TTP is poised for a resurgence."

Continue on for a transcript of Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper's 14 October statement.

"That pact transformed the Kurds, an erstwhile partner of the U.S. in the fight against Islamic State, into a force more closely aligned with Russia and Iran, as the U.S. began withdrawing its troops from northeastern Syria."

"Since the outbreak of Syria's brutal civil war, the United States has stated several objectives -- destroying Islamic State extremists, easing from power President Bashar al-Assad and limiting Iran's influence. In just one decision, President Donald Trump may have undone all three."

"It has taken a week to reshape the map of the Syrian war, in the seven days since President Donald Trump used what he called his 'great and unmatched wisdom' to order the withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria."

"The SDF’s demise threatens to erase gains over the last five years that have forced ISIS militants into hiding in remote pockets in the desert and across the Euphrates."

"Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who last week warned that the U.S. would apply sanctions if Turkey proceeded with a military strike in northern Syria, said his office was to present President Trump with retaliatory options."

"Syria's army has started to reach the north of the country, hours after the government agreed to help Kurdish forces facing Turkey. State media said government forces, which are backed by Russia, had entered the strategic town of Tal Tamer, 30km (19 miles) south of the Turkish border."