Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
RFL/RE — U.S. President Donald Trump says in a Twitter video message that “after historic victories” against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, U.S. troops are “all coming back and they’re all coming back now,” a plan earlier condemned by many Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
“We have won against [IS], we’ve beaten them, and we’ve beaten them badly,” he said in the video on December 19.
“Now it’s time for our troops to come back home,” he added.
The video posting came after confusion and some concerns were raised by U.S. lawmakers and allies in response to an earlier tweet by the president that said, “We have defeated [IS] in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”
U.S. officials earlier had told media outlets the president had decided to rapidly withdraw all troops from Syria, and White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said some of the 2,000-strong U.S. force had begun to leave after the militants’ “territorial caliphate” had been defeated.
However, France and Britain said that much remains to be done in Syria.
France said it would maintain its participation in the anti-IS coalition. “For now of course we remain in Syria,” France’s European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said on December 20, adding that “the fight against terrorism is not over.”
A British government statement warned that “much remains to be done” in fighting the IS group in Syria.
“The global coalition against [IS] has made huge progress,” the statement issued late on December 19 said.
“But much remains to be done and we must not lose sight of the threat they pose. Even without territory, [IS] will remain a threat,” the statement said.
Junior Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood was more blunt, retweeting a messagefrom Trump that the jihadists had been defeated in Syria with the words: “I strongly disagree.”
In the United States, many Republican and Democratic lawmakers condemned Trump’s move. Some said it was a betrayal of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in the war-torn country. Others said it handed a victory to Russia and Iran.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria creates prospects for a political settlement of the conflict there, according to the TASS news agency.
Russia has repeatedly asserted that U.S. forces have no right to be in Syria because Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government has not approved their presence.
Both Moscow and Tehran have given Assad crucial support throughout the Syrian conflict, which began with a government crackdown on protesters in March 2011 and has left more than 400,000 people dead, displaced millions, and devastated many historical sites across the country.
In 2014, IS fighters seized large swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in a lightning offensive and proclaimed a so-called Islamic “caliphate.”
IS militants have lost virtually all the territory they once controlled in Iraq, but still carry out sporadic attacks.
