j.b.: -- bob cusack, thanks. congress returns tuesday. the houseplants to debate a bill that would require companies to disclose where their workers are by country. lowering prescription drug costs, follow the house live on c-span. the senate also returns tuesday, to return --s plan to debate the nomination of the next airport secretary. the chamber also plans a debate on district court nominations. see the senate live on c-span2. earlier today, defense secretary mark esper and joint chiefs of staff chairman mark milley held a news conference at the pentagon. the updated reporters on turkey's military operations in syria and said the u.s. would

not abandon the kurdish partner forces. this is 20 minutes. secretary esper: good afternoon. general milley have been working with president -- and i have been working with president trump on the middle east. we will provide an update on changes to the u.s. posture in the region. beginning with syria, we are opposed on greatly disappointed by the turkish decision to launch a unilateral military incursion into northern syria. this operation puts our stf partners in harm's way, it risks the security of isis prison camps and will further destabilize the region. wem the president on down,

have communicated with the turks on this issue. i spoke with the turkish defense minister yesterday to express our strong opposition to turkish actions and reiterated the damage this is doing to our relationship. the chairman has similarly been in communication with his counterpart when turkey notified us of an imminent military operation, we relocated a contingent of less than 50 soldiers out of the immediate zone of attack. the decision was made to ensure american troops were not caught in the fighting between kurdish and turkish forces. the safety of our men and women in uniform remains our priority. we are repositioning additional forces to assist with force stfection as necessary the -- as necessary. the sdf transferred to isis militants involved in murders into our custody. they are being held in a secure location in the region outside

syria. -- we have made no additional changes to our force posture in syria but will assess the situation and our troop levels. ourre not abandoning kurdish partner forces, and u.s. forces remain with them in other parts of syria. the impulsive action of president burda want to invade northern syria has put the united states in a tough situation, given our relationship with our nato ally, turkey, who fought alongside the u.s. in the past, the syrian democratic forces, who helped us destroy isis, and the safety of u.s. military personnel. rather than get pulled into this conflict, we put the welfare of our soldiers first while urging turkey to forgo its operation and work hard with us to address their concerns through the development of a security zone along the border. close coordination with the syrian democratic forces who helped us destroy isis, but i will not place

american service members in the middle of a long-standing conflict between the turks and the kurds. this is not why we are in syria. we will continue to work with syrian democratic forces to ensure the defeat of isis. turning to iran, the iranians are response -- are responsible for attacks on saudi arabian oil facilities. our international partners agree, including the u.k., france and germany. despite a rainy and attempts to deny involvement, evidence -- despite irani iranian attempts to done denyinvolvement -- to involvement, evidence proves to tehran was-- proves involved. isay we discussed the status of saudi defensive capabilities and efforts to protect our

partners from aggression. saudi arabia is a security partner and has asked for additional support. in theonse to threats region, i have ordered the deployment to saudi arabia of two additional fighter squadrons and personnel, along with additional patriot and air defense batteries. i have extended or authorized for the last month, altogether this involves 3000 american forces. to iranian threats, the u.s. has deployed early warning squadrons, patriot bombers, aense, b-52 carrier strike group and engineering and support personnel. additionales 14,000 u.s. forces deployed to the region. the u.s. military has on alert

additional army, navy, marine and air force units to quickly provide increased capability in the region if necessary. the united states remains committed to protecting our allies and ensuring the free flow of resources to support the global economy and rules-based international order. companies --inded countries and our allies in europe to join us with defensive assets to ensure stability in the region. the nationalnt defense strategy, my aim for the department of defense is to remain flexible in accordance with the concept of dynamic force deployment. this is one example of how we will manage our force posture to align with national priorities while meeting the challenges of a complex security environment. we will soon employ naval forces, brigade combat teams, bombers and other resources to plate the right -- to place the

right force in the right location at the right time. on ability depends predictable, adequate, sustained and timely funding from congress. regretfully, we are under a continuing resolution. cause great damage to military readiness. pass acongress to defense appropriations bill now so we can move forward with programs needed to ensure our readiness. general and i will take your questions. >> mr. secretary, you have said the u.s. has not abandoned the sdf. can you tell us whether operations against isis have paused or slowed, or is the u.s. continuing to partner with sdf in other areas?

mr. chairman, can you give us an assessment of the incursion by turkey into syria? ine turkish ground troops on in large numbers and is there pushback or fighting by the sdf? will speak to: i what is happening on the ground and answer your policy question. sdf,e still located with with the exception of two small outposts we withdrew forces from in a force protection mode. ge of thee fronta turkish-syrian border is 400 kilometers. the area of incursion is 25 kilometers. andhe west is a village, that is where the two op's were. we have withdrawn from there.

elsewhere in syria we remain co-located with them. the sdf is still guarding prisoners in the areas that have been detained. so we are still conducting operations. this incursion initiated by the turks had some effect, but yes, we are still cold located. with respect to the incursion, right now the turks have with mannedrstrikes aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles in both a reconnaissance mode and airstrike mode, they have conducted artillery strikes and some direct fire from tanks on the northern side of the border, the turkish side. as far as forces that have come south, to our knowledge it is is relatively limited in terms of ground forces. so we are talking about the two villages east and west of the security mechanism zone. they have come south that both sides with turkish light infantry commando forces in coordination with the free

syrian army. you're looking at numbers of turkish military in the hundreds and maybe after 1000 of the syrian free army. they have advanced in the west perhaps 10 kilometers and in the east, something like three kilometers. groundincursion on the is relatively limited, but indirect fire strikes and airstrikes continue. with regard to the broader question, up and down the chain of command from president trump to myself, secretary of state, secretary of state pompeo, we spoke to our counterparts and urged them to stop the incursion and highlighted the importance of doing so because of the destabilizing effects throughout the region. there is dramatic harm being done to our bilateral relationship. i had a similar conversation with the nato secretary-general and updated him. you have seen many of our nato

allies say that turkey must stop the incursion now, and that remains our message. stop, get back to the status quote, let's work out a security mechanism safe sound -- safe zone and separate the two forces. >> mr. secretary, you asked the turks to stop what you have described as a limited incursion. heavy so far seen any sign they are stopping or slowing? and if you are telling the turks to stop, what are you telling syrian democratic forces? myretary esper: in conversations as of yesterday i have no indications that they are willing to stop. i'm not surprised, because since i came to office in july, i've had multiple engagements with them, and this has been their consistent theme about the terrorist threat that they see, how this is affecting their

national security. they have been adamant about making this incursion and have been dissatisfied with progress we have made, so i have seen no lessening with regards to their commitment at this point. >> what are used telling the syrian democratic forces? general milley: with respect to the syrian military and the kurdish military, i just got off the phone with my counterparts and i have not seen any indication of warnings of any planned stoppage of their military activity. what are u.s. officials, u.s. military, telling syrian democratic forces that they should do in response to this incursion? haveal milley: we do forces cold located right now and are asking them to continue their partnership with us. a lot of it is force protection with our forces and so on. and naturally, there is anxiety, you get a lot of that in your

channels as well, and the leadership of the sdf has given instructions to some of their forces to begin to move north in order to defend what they think is their territory. and we are encouraging them not to overreact and to tap things down in order to allow some sort of diplomatic resolution to surface. chairman, please explain how you expect to safeguard these prisoners, these islamic state prisoners. sdf mightnt the decide to move away from them to defend their homeland. and has there been a decision theon whether to backfill uss abraham lincoln when it wraps up its deployment? and how does this announcement fit into that? general milley: i'm not going to speak about operational of --

operational deployments, particularly carriers. we are in the early stages of a new concept called dynamic force deployment, which would allow us to move carriers around the world to allow us operational unpredictability. that is critical. it's so that we keep adversaries us tolance, and allow react to emerging situations around the world. matter,ard to the first we have been in contact with the turks. i have communicated with them multiple times that they are responsible for the security of isis fighters in these prisons. that is the responsibility. to monitor that situation. on the ground, we are in contact with the sdf. chairman, i think you had a conversation with your counterpart on this matter as well. as i understand

it, the u.s. has no legal responsibility for those detainees. tot is an issue for lawyers discuss, but the u.s. military has no responsibility to secure those isis prisoners in syria. sdf isond point is, the still in control of the various prison sites they have. with the exception of the limited incursion zone. i had withphone call the head of the turkish military, i confirmed he understands clearly that the turkish military has a possibility, -- has responsibility not only for the prisoners, but for collateral damage and all the rest of it, and areas where they are discussing -- where they are conducting a military operation. so we discussed that in right now it is a turkish responsibility to secure those isis prisoners in the zone of incursion. secretary, some of your

own forces say you have abandoned the syrian kurds. they were your partners against isis. we have notper: abandoned the kurds. let me be clear on that. nobody greenlighted this operation by turkey, just the opposite. we pushed back at all levels for the turks not to commence this operation. they have opposed this operation since the u.s. and the ypg since its instant see in 2014. the turks have a all along the way. so we should not be surprised they finally acted this way. we have tried at least since i came into office two and a half months ago, week after week, to set up a security mechanism to address legitimate turkish security concerns with regard to pkk. clearly they are concerned about this and averaged a point where they could not accept it anymore and decided to make this incursion despite our efforts to stop them. >> will you continue to arm your

syrian kurdish partners? general milley: the policy of the u.s. is to continue with our counter-isis campaign and we continue those operations except in that one area of the incursion. with respect to the stc you mentioned, there is no -- the sdz you mentioned, there i know of that allows us to conduct military operations against the turks, a 70-year nato ally. >> have you given the turks any kind of know strike -- any kind do not strikeist, these areas where our people are? and you talked about repositioning additional forces to ensure u.s. forces are safe, but you did not indicate that have gone in -- that they have

gone into syria. can you tell us what you are doing to protect u.s. forces in addition to the no-strike question? military down is to specific detail of the locations of u.s. forces. we have been in coordination with them in sent, at various levels and personally -- in centcom at various levels, and personally at my level. so they know exactly where american forces are. everyone has been told throughout syria and in the zones of incursion -- zone of fullyion, and everyone is aware we are the united states military and retain the right of self-defense. our soldiers and marines will defend themselves, that is clear and unambiguous. forces, thetioning mecretary authored centco

commander mckinley to reposition forces as necessary in this area. with regard to: the first point, are reinforced the same two items in regard to my counterpart yesterday, in regard to the no-strike list and the americans' right to self-defense. secretary, i understand there have been indications before turkey was going to cross the border to do some kind of border operations. what is different now? secretary esper: we have been concerned about this since i came into office, this was job number-one for me, working with my counterpart, german dunford told theal milley,

church back from this incursion. we thought we were making good progress on the security zone. with -- we had begun joint ground and air patrols and established a southern command center in turkey, were exchanging information, we were doing all the things that we agreed to do. i can't explain why they did what they did, but clearly it is president erdogan and company at this point. since the beginning of its relationship with the u.s. and the ypg and later the sdf under the obama administration, this has been a long-standing thorn in the side of turkey, and i guess they decided it was time to act. >> can you clarify what of this new deployment to saudi arabia, what was unplanned? my understanding was that the two fighter squadrons were already supported -- already supposed to rotate in the missile batteries were supposed to go in at some point. can you say what was unplanned?

additional deployment to saudi arabia is for the purpose of defense of our interests and assets in the region, and to reestablish deterrence with respect to iran in the wake of an attack on saudi arabia. unplanned, i'm not sure what you are getting at. we have forces prepared to deploy orders and reserves, that is where they came from. and they are deploying in addition to forces already there. >> i know the fighter squadrons were already supposed to be there. patriotmilley: then the batteries and the thad, and the other forces. secretary esper: there is a difference between putting people on deployment orders and deploying them. that is the distinction. we have additional time to be flown into theater. we have additional concerns about what we are hearing from allies about continued iranian

behavior, things we pick up. we looked at the intelligence and decided it was important to send a message to the iranians, do not strike another sovereign state, do not threaten american interests or forces, or we will respond. and i have said, do not mistake restraintake our for weakness. if you do, you will regret that. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, live coverage of president trump holding a campaign rally in lake charles, louisiana. on c-span two, book tv with authors who have appeared on our in-depth series. end on c-span3, american history tv, with programs looking at the

history of the u.s. automobile industry. and tomorrow, more from president trump as he speaks at the 14th annual values voter summit here in washington. see that live saturday at 6:15 p.m. eastern on c-span. ♪ >> c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, we speak with reporters from around the country on how the house democrats' impeachment inquiry is impacting legislative issues in virginia, utah, nebraska, new york and california congressional districts. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal live saturday at 7:00 eastern. join the discussion. ♪ >>