The US and Turkey managed to agree on a ceasefire in northeastern Syria after Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed to limit the ceasefire to a specific time frame, Reuters reported referring to a source.

According to the source of the agency, the US Vice President Mike Pence and Erdogan, whose talks lasted more than four hours, had many disagreements, but the main problem was Turkey’s reluctance to go to a truce.

But early in the conversation Pence told Erdogan that Trump “liked, respected and valued” him, according to the Turkish official, an introduction which he said “warmed the atmosphere”.

A turning point occurred when Erdogan demanded to set a specific period of time for a ceasefire, and not to introduce such a regime forever.

“The make-or-break point in the meeting was when Erdogan demanded a deadline if they wanted the operations to be paused,” he said. “Erdogan said it could be 24 or 48 hours. Pence said it was a very short frame and he couldn’t make that decision by himself.”

Pence and Erdogan reached an agreement on October 17 - Ankara should stop the operation for 120 hours, and Kurdish forces move 30 km from the border.