US officials said President Donald Trump has been persuaded not to pull the military out of Syria immediately, despite his declaration last week that the US would “be coming out of Syria very soon”.
Advisers reportedly convinced him that it “could risk a resurgence” by the Takfiri ISIL group.
The White House said on Wednesday the US military mission in Syria was coming to a “rapid end”. But it has not announced a timetable for a full troop withdrawal.
A statement said ISIL was almost completely destroyed, and that the US would consult its allies regarding future plans.
A senior administration official told NBC News that the president had agreed at a meeting on Tuesday to keep troops in Syria for an undetermined period, but “wasn’t thrilled about it, to say the least”.
The US has about 2,000 personnel on the ground in eastern Syria supporting an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Earlier last week, Trump promised the US troops’ early withdrawal from Syria.
“We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it,” Trump said during a speech in Ohio last week.
Shortly after, he confirmed the move by saying that the US “almost completed” the task of destroying ISIL in Syria and that he wants “to get out and bring our troops home.”
Source: BBC
