"The President expressed the desire to work together to address Turkey's security concerns in northeast Syria while stressing the importance to the United States that Turkey does not mistreat the Kurds and other Syrian Democratic Forces with whom we have fought to defeat ISIS," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

US forces are set to depart from Syria where they worked closely with the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, which Turkey considers to have terrorism links.