Pentagon drafts plan for US troop withdrawal from Syria

The Department of Defense is preparing plans to withdraw all US troops from Syria, two US defense officials told NBC on Tuesday.

The officials said President Donald Trump and officials close to him had recently expressed interest in withdrawing US troops from Syria, prompting Pentagon officials to begin preparing plans for a full withdrawal in 30, 60, or 90 days.

Trump’s new National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, spent Friday at the US Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters in Tampa, Florida, where he met with senior US military leaders and received a briefing on the Middle East, US defense officials said.

A White House official said the possible reduction of US forces in Syria was not the subject of the briefing or the purpose of Waltz’s visit.

“It’s good that NSA Waltz is visiting CENTCOM to get to know the whole region,” the White House official said, noting that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the White House on Tuesday and that King Abdullah of Jordan will visit Washington next week.

At a press conference in the Oval Office last Thursday, a reporter asked Trump about reports that he had informed the Israeli government about the withdrawal of US troops from Syria.

In response, Trump said, “I don’t know who said that. I mean, I don’t know who said it, but we’re going to make a decision on this. We do not enter Syria; we do not interfere in Syria. Syria is a trouble in itself. There is enough confusion there. They don’t need us meddling in everything,” he said.

In December, the Pentagon announced the deployment of about 2,000 troops to Syria, more than double the 900 or so the military has been saying for years.