U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in a National Security Council meeting this week to keep U.S. troops in Syria "a little longer" to defeat Islamic State, but wants them out relatively soon, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.
While the official said Trump did not approve a specific withdrawal timetable at Tuesday's meeting, he wants other countries in the region and the United Nations to step up and help provide stability in Syria while ensuring that Islamic State is defeated.
"We're not going to immediately withdraw, but neither is the president willing to back a long-term commitment," the official said.
Other U.S. officials say Trump has signaled to his advisers that ideally he wants all troops out within six months, shortly before the U.S. midterm elections this November.
"I want to get out [of Syria]," Trump said this week. "I want to bring our troops back home. I want to start rebuilding our nation."
Trump is alone in his haste to withdraw from Syria. The Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA are all deeply concerned about the potential ramifications of a speedy U.S. withdrawal and the power vacuum that would result in Syria. Israel, Arab leaders, and other nations in the U.S.-led coalition that has fought Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014 are equally concerned.
Trump signaled his desire to pull U.S. forces out of Syria in a speech last Thursday in Ohio, and officials said he had privately been pressing for an early withdrawal in talks with his national security aides.
Trump told a news conference on Tuesday with Baltic leaders that the United States was very successful against Islamic State but that "sometimes it's time to come back home."
His advisers have been urging him to maintain at least a small force in Syria to ensure the militants are defeated and to prevent Syrian President Bashar Assad's ally, Iran, from gaining a powerful foothold.
The U.S. carries out regular airstrikes in Syria and has about 2,000 ground troops in the war-torn country, including special operations forces whose advice has helped Kurdish militia and other U.S.-backed fighters capture territory from the Islamic State group.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders rejected concerns that a U.S. withdrawal from Syria might encourage deeper Iranian involvement in the country, saying U.S. allies and partners in the region could help with security.
"The purpose would be to train local enforcement as well as have our allies and partners in the region who have a lot more at risk to put more skin into the game," Sanders told a briefing. "Certainly that's something that the president wants to see happen, for them to step up and for them to do more."
Sanders did not say which regional partners might play a role in Syria, but Trump has previously said Saudi Arabia should pay more if it wants the United States to remain.
The White House said in a statement on Wednesday that the U.S. remains committed to eliminating Islamic State in Syria, but it added that the American military mission is "coming to a rapid end, with ISIS being almost completely destroyed."
U.S. Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who oversees U.S. troops in the Middle East as the head of Central Command, estimated on Tuesday that more than 90% of the group's territory in Syria had been taken back since 2014.
Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy for the global coalition against Islamic State, said Tuesday, "We are in Syria to fight ISIS. That is our mission and our mission isn't over and we are going to complete that mission."
