WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States would get out of Syria “over a period of time” and wants to protect the US-backed Kurdish fighters in the country as Washington draws down troops.
Trump did not provide a timetable for the planned military exit from Syria, which he announced last month against the advice of top national security aides and without consulting lawmakers or US allies participating in anti-Daesh operations.
The decision prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign.
During a Cabinet meeting at the White House in front of reporters, Trump said he had never discussed a reported four-month timetable for the withdrawal of 2,000 American troops stationed in Syria amid a battle against Daesh militants.
In recent days, Trump appeared to back off from any hasty pullout and stressed that the operation would be slow. “We’re slowly sending our troops back home to be with their families, while at the same time fighting Isis [Daesh] remnants,” he said on Twitter on Monday.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he came out of a lunch with Trump feeling reassured about the Syria policy.
Graham told reporters that Trump was committed to making sure Turkey did not clash with the Kurdish YPG forces once US troops leave Syria, and was assuring the NATO ally that it would have a buffer zone in the region to help protect its own interests.
Turkey views the YPG as a branch of its own Kurdish separatist movement and is threatening to launch an offensive against the group, igniting fears of significant civilian casualties.
US commanders planning the US withdrawal are recommending that YPG fighters battling Daesh be allowed to keep US-supplied weapons, according to US officials.
That proposal would likely anger Turkey, where Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, is expected to hold talks this week.
Trump gives no timetable for Syria exit, wants to protect Kurds
Trump gives no timetable for Syria exit, wants to protect Kurds
Israel aims to ensure more Palestinians are let out of Gaza than back in
- It was still not clear how Israel planned to enforce limits on the number of Palestinians entering Gaza from Egypt
- Sources said Israeli officials had insisted on setting up a military checkpoint in Gaza to screen Palestinians moving in and out
TEL AVIV: Israel wants to restrict the number of Palestinians entering Gaza through the border crossing with Egypt to ensure that more are allowed out than in, three sources briefed on the matter said ahead of the border’s expected opening next week.
The head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, announced on Thursday that the Rafah Border Crossing — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open next week.
The border was supposed to have opened during the initial phase of President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war, under a ceasefire reached in October between Israel and Hamas.
Earlier this month, Washington announced that the plan had now moved into the second phase, under which Israel is expected to withdraw troops further from Gaza and Hamas is due to yield control of the territory’s administration. The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.
The three sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said it was still not clear how Israel planned to enforce limits on the number of Palestinians entering Gaza from Egypt, or what ratio of exits to entries it aimed to achieve.
Israeli officials have spoken in the past about encouraging Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza, although they deny intending to transfer the population out by force. Palestinians are highly sensitive to any suggestion that Gazans could be expelled, or that those who leave temporarily could be barred from returning.
The Rafah Crossing is expected to be staffed by Palestinians affiliated with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and monitored by EU personnel, as took place during an earlier, weeks-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas early last year.
The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. The military referred questions to the government, declining to comment.
The three sources said that Israel also wants to establish a military checkpoint inside Gaza near the border, through which all Palestinians entering or leaving would be required to pass and be subjected to Israeli security checks.
Two other sources also said that Israeli officials had insisted on setting up a military checkpoint in Gaza to screen Palestinians moving in and out.
The US Embassy in Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Washington supported Israel in limiting the number of Palestinians entering Gaza or setting up a checkpoint to screen those entering and leaving.
Under the initial phase of Trump’s plan, the Israeli military partially pulled back its forces within Gaza but retained control of 53 percent of the territory including the entire land border with Egypt. Nearly all of the territory’s population lives in the rest of Gaza, under Hamas control and mostly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.
The sources said that it was not clear how individuals would be dealt with if they were blocked by Israel’s military from passing through its checkpoint, particularly those entering from Egypt.
The Israeli government has repeatedly objected to the opening of the border, with some officials saying Hamas must first return the body of an Israeli police officer held in Gaza, the final human remains of a hostage due to be transferred under the ceasefire’s first phase.
US officials in private say that Washington, not Israel, is driving the rollout of the president’s plan to end the war.
