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US pullout from Syria to be done in ‘prudent’ way: Trump
WASHINGTON, Jan 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald Trump on Monday sought
to end fears of an abrupt US pullout from Syria, saying the fight against the
Islamic State group was not over and that withdrawal would be done in a
“prudent” manner.
“We will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to
fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!” Trump tweeted.
The president has come under withering pressure both at home and in allied
capitals after previous statements indicating that he considered the IS group
vanquished and that he wanted US troops out of Syria imminently.
Trump’s new statement follows a trip by his national security adviser John
Bolton to Israel in which he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday
that withdrawal would not happen before “ISIS is defeated and not able to
revive itself.”
In a call, Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke of “the
commitment of the United States and France to the destruction of ISIS as well
as plans for a strong, deliberate, and coordinated withdrawal of US troops
from Syria,” the White House said.
“They reiterated that any further use of chemical weapons in Syria must not
be tolerated.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had spoken with French officials.
“We’ll make sure we address the concerns that they have. Everyone understands
what the United States is doing,” he told reporters as he headed on a Middle
East visit.
The reassurances followed a diplomatic storm caused by Trump’s surprise
announcement in December that appeared to signal a rapid withdrawal from
Syria, where US special forces play an important role in supporting local
forces fighting IS.
“We’ve won against ISIS,” he said at the time. “We’ve beaten them and we’ve
beaten them badly. We’ve taken back the land. And now it’s time for our
troops to come back home.”
Allies like Britain and France warned that IS was not defeated. Questions
were also raised over the fate of Kurdish groups that have done much of the
fighting alongside the United States in Syria, but now fear attacks from
Turkey.
The initial pullout promise also sparked outspoken opposition from within
Trump’s Republican party and the resignation of respected defense secretary
James Mattis.
In Monday’s statement, Trump complained that media coverage had skewed his
original words, saying that his latest position on Syria was “no different
from my original statements.”
Currently, about 2,000 US forces are in the Syria, which is in the grips of
a complex civil war. Most of the US soldiers are there to train local forces
fighting the hardcore-Islamist IS.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0837 hrs