WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th January, 2019) President Donald Trump's position on the US military presence in Syria remains unchanged because his Primary goal has always been to keep US troops and allied partners safe after the former leave the country, White House Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp said in an interview.
"The president hasn't changed his position, as he mentioned his primary goal is to ensure the safety of our troops and the safety of our allies as well," Schlapp told Fox news on Monday. "And so the Department of Defense will come up with its operational plan to safely withdraw our troops. We have defeated the territorial caliphate, and it's time to bring our troops home."
In December, Trump announced - apparently without consulting the Defense Department - that the United States will pull all its forces from Syria because the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia) had been defeated. Defense Secretary James Mattis and administration counterterrorism coordinator Brett McGurk resigned as a result of Trump's decision.
National Security Adviser John Bolton spent Monday in Israel assuring the Jewish state that US troops would not leave Syria until Turkey agrees not to attack US-allied Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria and until the remaining Islamic State terrorists have been defeated.
Although the US-led coalition has ended Islamic State rule over much of Syria, pockets of terrorists remain in the region, as evidenced by more than 450 strikes on Islamic State fighters by the coalition in the first two weeks of the year, according to a recent Defense Department announcement.
Meanwhile, Trump's initial announcement was followed by a buildup of Turkish forces near the Syrian city of Manjib, where Kurdish forces remain, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Friday that the United States needed to first ensure Turkey would not massacre the Kurds in a US-backed People's Protection Units (YPG) militia when US troops departed. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group.
