Trump delays troop pullout
President Donald Trump has rowed back from his surprise announcement that he would pull American troops swiftly out of Syria, saying that the plan will instead be implemented ‘‘slowly’’.
Trump told Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican senator, that he was reconsidering how he would carry out his promise to ‘‘bring the troops home’’, Graham said after a meeting at the White House.
Trump tweeted yesterday that he was sending troops home ‘‘slowly’’. Two weeks ago he had announced: ‘‘Our boys, our young women, our men – they’re all coming back, and they’re coming back now.’’ His announcement of an abrupt withdrawal of US forces cost him his defence secretary when Jim Mattis quit in protest.
The president’s changes of mind over the American presence in Syria have especially unsettled the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are trained and supported by US, British and French special forces. The SDF is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, though it also contains some Arab brigades.
The YPG has in turn said that it might withdraw from the key city of Manbij, which is threatened by both the Assad regime and Turkish-backed forces. Residents said that they were ‘‘packing their bags’’ in alarm.
‘‘People are afraid of chaos no matter which army controls the city,’’ a doctor who called himself Abu Mohammed told The Times. ‘‘It’s not about politics, it’s rather about fear. Most people would rather things just stayed as they are.’’
Trump’s decision to withdraw, despite promises that US troops would stay to defeat Islamic State and act as a bulwark against Iranian influence, also angered his own Republican Party, which has staunchly backed the mission in eastern Syria. Graham in particular has been a leading proponent of intervention and argued against both handing over eastern Syria to the regime and its Iranian allies, and abandoning America’s Kurdish allies.
After having lunch with Trump in the White House, Graham was confident that the US withdrawal would not be as abrupt as feared. ‘‘He told me some things I didn’t know that made me feel a lot better about where we’re headed in Syria,’’ Graham said. ‘‘I think the president is committed to making sure when we leave Syria that Isis is completely defeated.’’
He added that the president would not withdraw before ensuring that Isis was ‘‘permanently destroyed’’, Iran did not fill in the ‘‘back end’’ and the Kurds were protected.
Those commitments match Trump’s statements in the summer when he agreed to keep troops in Syria. ‘‘[The president] is talking with our commanders and working with our allies to make sure these three objectives are met as we implement the withdrawal,’’ Graham said.
r Trump insisted that his ‘‘victory’’ in Syria was still on course, but also suggested that he was willing to compromise on the manner of withdrawal.
He tweeted: ‘‘If anybody but Donald Trump did what I did in Syria, which was an Isis-loaded mess when I became president, they would be a national hero. Isis is mostly gone, we’re slowly sending our troops back home to be with their families, while at the same time fighting Isis remnants.’’
The Kurds were hoping to use a continued US presence as a bargaining chip with the regime to ensure that they retained autonomy in any final settlement of the war.
However, without the US presence, they would be vulnerable not just to the regime, with which they have maintained on-off relations during the conflict, but to Turkey. The YPG is the Syrian arm of the PKK, the guerrilla group that has fought a fourdecade war against Ankara.
– The Times
‘‘I think the president is committed to making sure when we leave Syria that Isis is completely defeated.’’ Lindsey Graham, leading Republican senator