US ‘to decide on future of troops in Syria’
WASHINGTON
Washington "will make a determination" regarding the troops in Syria, U.S. President Donald Trump has said, following a report that said he intends to withdraw American forces.
"I don't know who said that, but we'll make a determination on that," Trump told reporters at White House on Jan. 30.
"We're not involved in Syria. Syria is in its own mess. They've got enough messes over there. They don't need us involved.”
Israel's official public broadcasting Kan reported this week that “senior White House officials conveyed a message to their Israeli counterparts indicating that President Trump intends to pull thousands of U.S. troops from Syria.”
It added that “the withdrawal of American forces from Syria will raise significant concerns in Tel Aviv”.
The U.S. has recently upped its presence of troops in Syria from 900 to around 2,000 after a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Dec. 8, 2024.
The Pentagon has explained the surge in numbers as a temporary measure to prevent ISIL from gaining a foothold in the country.
American forces in Syria remain the primary backers of the YPG, the Syrian wing of the PKK terrorist organization, which Washington considers an ally in the fight against ISIL. YPG has voiced strong opposition to the U.S. withdrawal.
Türkiye has long criticized the U.S. support for the terrorist PKK/ YPG under the pretext of fighting ISIL, saying that using one terrorist group to fight another makes no sense.
The PKK/YPG terrorist organization has sought to exploit the uncertainty since the Assad regime’s fall to step up efforts to establish a “terrorist corridor” along the border with Türkiye.
Türkiye has launched several military operations against the group since 2016. In recent months, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) has captured several towns in Syria previously controlled by the YPG, including Manbij and Deir ez-Zor.
