The US Defense Department is developing plans to withdraw all US troops from Syria, two US defense officials told NBC News, Report informs.
President Donald Trump and officials close to him recently expressed interest in pulling US troops out of Syria, the officials said, leading Pentagon officials to begin drawing up plans for a full withdrawal in 30, 60 or 90 days.
Trump’s new national security adviser, Mike Waltz, spent Friday at the headquarters of US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, meeting with senior US military leaders and getting briefings on the Middle East, according to US defense officials.
A White House official said the potential reduction of US forces in Syria was not a topic of the briefing or the purpose of Waltz’s visit.
“It’s good for NSA Waltz to visit CENTCOM to get a sense of the entire region,” the White House official said, pointing out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House on Tuesday and that Jordan’s King Abdullah is scheduled to visit next week.
Last Thursday, a reporter asked Trump at an Oval Office media event about reports he had informed the Israeli government about pulling U.S. troops out of Syria.
“I don’t know who said that. I mean, I don’t know who said that, but we’ll make a determination on that. We’re not getting, we’re not involved in Syria,” Trump replied. “Syria is its own mess. They got enough messes over there. They don’t need us involved in everyone.”
In late 2019, Trump ordered Defense Secretary James Mattis to withdraw all US troops from Syria. Mattis pushed back against the plan and ultimately resigned in protest.
Trump withdrew most US troops but subsequently moved them back. The US presence in Syria has continued since then.
In December, the Pentagon announced that roughly 2,000 troops were deployed to Syria, more than double the number the military had said for years, about 900.
A Pentagon spokesman described the additional 1,100 troops at the time as “temporary rotational forces” for about 30 to 90 days at a time, while the 900 were “core” troops deployed there for closer to one year.
