Three months after President Trump announced a full withdrawal of forces in Syria, the U.S. is now reportedly planning to keep nearly 1,000 troops in the country.
In December, Trump declared victory over the Islamic State and said all of the approximately 2,000 troops stationed in Syria would soon be on their way back home. But according to a Sunday report from the Wall Street Journal, those plans have drastically changed. The U.S. troops that remain will continue to partner with Kurdish fighters, despite Turkish opposition.
Conversations between the U.S., Turkey, Kurdish fighters, and European allies have yet to yield a clear framework on how the U.S. withdrawal would work. Negotiations between the sides have come to no agreement on the creation of a safe zone in northeastern Syria, part of the administration’s plan for leaving the region.
The nation’s top general denied the report.
“A claim reported this evening by a major U.S. newspaper that the U.S. military is developing plans to keep nearly 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria is factually incorrect,” Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a statement. “There has been no change to the plan announced in February and we continue to implement the President’s direction to draw down U.S. forces to a residual presence,” he adds.
Dunford said in his statement that the Pentagon has conducted “detailed military planning” with Turkey. He said these plans have been “productive” and that an “initial concept that will be refined in the coming days.”
Trump’s December announcement of a rapid Syria withdrawal led to the resignation of former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, as well as condemnation from lawmakers in both parties. Since that time, a full withdrawal has been walked back, with Trump saying in early March that a small “stabilizing force” would be left behind.
There are currently about 2,000 U.S. forces in Syria.
