Jerusalem: Donald Trump’s national security adviser has cast fresh doubt on the US President’s announced withdrawal of American troops from Syria.
The President’s national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday any withdrawal would be conditional on defeating the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group and on Turkey assuring the safety of US-allied Kurdish fighters.
Trump last month claimed that IS had already been defeated in Syria, a statement now at odds with is top security adviser.
Bolton said there was no timetable for the pullout, but insisted the military presence was not unlimited.
“There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal,” Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem before heading to Turkey, where he will join the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford. “The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement.”
Those conditions, he said, included defeating what’s left of IS in Syria and protecting Kurdish militias who have fought alongside US troops against the extremist group.
Bolton’s comments were the first public confirmation that the drawdown has been put on ice.
Trump had faced widespread criticism from allies over the unexpected decision, announced in mid-December, that he was pulling all 2000 US troops out of Syria.
Read the article in The Sydney Morning Herald (AP).