MISSION CREPT: President Trump, who just six months ago said he was ready to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, is now backing a plan to keep a presence there until Iranian forces leave. But James Jeffrey, the State Department’s special representative to Syria, insists that does not necessarily mean keeping U.S. military “boots on the ground.” Arab allies and local proxy forces backed by U.S. air power could replace the roughly 2,000 American troops deployed there as the administration begins a new push for the “removal of all Iranian-commanded forces from the entirety of Syria,” Jeffrey said late last week.

White House national security adviser John Bolton, who has reportedly been pushing Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the region to field an Arab force, laid out the plan last week to keep a U.S. presence in Syria until Iran leaves. “The president wants us in Syria until that and the other conditions are met. But I want to be clear here: Us. ‘Us’ is not necessarily American boots on the ground,” Jeffrey said. “There are many ways that we can be on the ground. We’re certainly on the ground diplomatically. … We have local forces that we have trained in various parts of Syria. Our allies have local forces.”