ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned on Monday that the U.S. withdrawal from Syria must be planned carefully, and with the right partners, saying Turkey was the only country “with the power and commitment to perform that task”.

In an op-ed article for the New York Times, a day before he was due to meet U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, Erdogan said Turkey was committed to defeating Islamic State and “other terrorist groups” in Syria.