US Officials:

Trump 'Persuaded' Not to Withdraw Troops from Syria

TEHRAN (defapress) – 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".

News ID: 69546

Date: 05 April 2018 - 12:50

Advisers reportedly convinced him that it could risk a resurgence by the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terror 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 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".

Last week, Trump announced that he wants to withdraw US troops from Syria, complaining that Washington has wasted trillions of dollars in Middle East wars.

But Trump’s policy shift came after he demanded additional $4bln from Daesh financiers, Saudi Arabia in particular, to keep uninvited US troops in Syria.

The US has about 2,000 personnel on the ground in eastern Syria purportedly supporting an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).