An accused ISIS fighter will be repatriated to the U.S. after a period in which he was stranded in a militarized zone between Turkey and Greece, according to USA Today, citing Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
The man, identified by Anadolu as Mohammad Darwis B., was reportedly left in the border zone after Turkey deported him and he was refused entry to Greece.
{mosads}The decision comes as the U.S. and Britain have attempted to strip certain members of the terror group of citizenship in violation of the United Nations’s convention on statelessness. The 39-year-old is a U.S. citizen.
Turkey’s interior ministry said it began the repatriation process once it had received guarantees from U.S. officials that the man will be able to enter the U.S. Turkey has previously said it wishes to send about 1,200 ISIS fighters from abroad back to their nations of origin.
President Trump frequently calls on European nations to take back ISIS fighters with origins in their countries, saying earlier this year that hundreds of the ISIS militants detained by U.S.-backed Syrian forces that may have escaped amid Turkey’s military incursion are from Britain, France and Germany.
Turkey also pledged to expel suspected ISIS fighters from Ireland, France, Germany and Denmark, according to USA Today.
The announcement comes the day after a White House meeting between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during which Trump described himself as “a big fan of” Erdoğan.