Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close friend of Donald Trump, on Sunday urged the US president to reconsider the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, to ensure that the Islamic State group "never come back".
Donald Trump has recently ordered the total withdrawal of some 2,000 US troops currently deployed in northern Syria, mostly special forces present to fight ISIS and train local forces in jihadist areas. "I'm going to ask him to sit down with his generals and reconsider how to do that, to slow down, to make sure we do that well and that the IS never come back," CNN spokesman Lindsey Graham said. former detractor of Donald Trump become one of his relatives.
Anxiety for the fate of the Kurds. The senator said he was "surprised" by Donald Trump's decision, which he had already described as "a huge mistake". "We have to keep our troops there," he insisted. "If we leave now, the Kurds will be massacred". And "if we abandon the Kurds and they are slaughtered, who will help us in the future?", He asked. The Kurdish militia YPG, against which Turkey threatens to launch an offensive, is fighting with the support of Washington against jihadists in northern Syria.
To have men "over there, to protect us". "Do not put Syria back to the Iranians, it's a nightmare for Israel," he told Donald Trump, with whom he said he was having lunch on Sunday. The President "is frustrated, I understand it We are not the policeman of the world (But) we are fighting a war against ISIS They are not defeated in Syria I ask the President to make sure that we have men there to protect us, "said Lindsey Graham.
Donald Trump made this decision although senior US military officials have warned against a precipitous withdrawal that would leave the way open in Syria to allies of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, namely Russia, the great rival of the United States. United, and Iran, the pet peeve of the Trump administration.