President Donald Trump’s administration is offering a muddled view of future U.S. force posture in Syria.
The conversation of future U.S. policy in Syria came to a head when Trump declared in a Thursday Ohio speech offhandedly, “We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon.” The President repeated his remark at a joint press conference Tuesday saying, “I want to get out. I want to bring our troops back home,” and added, “it’s time to come back home, and we’re thinking about that very seriously, okay?”
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats then told reporters Wednesday morning that Trump had made a final decision on future U.S. presence in Syria. Reports quickly emerged from The Washington Post and NBCNews however that Trump agreed to requests from the U.S. military to keep troops in Syria for an “undetermined” period of time with the caveat that plans should be developed to withdraw at the appropriate time.
“He wasn’t thrilled about it, to say the least,” an administration official told NBCNews. Officials also told TheWP that Trump agreed to let U.S. forces continue to train local forces but that he wanted other countries like Saudi Arabia to begin paying for other operations in the area and that he would not extend the U.S. mission beyond targeting the Islamic State.
Trump’s decision culminated in a vague statement from White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that “the military mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria is coming to a rapid end, with ISIS being almost completely destroyed. The United States and our partners remain committed to eliminating the small ISIS presence in Syria that our forces have not already eradicated,” appearing to commit the U.S. to Syria for the foreseeable future.
Sanders added, however ,”We will continue to consult with our allies and friends regarding future plans. We expect countries in the region and beyond, plus the United Nations, to work toward peace and ensure that ISIS never re-emerges.”