US President Donald Trump wants to withdraw thousands of US troops from Syria, according to Israeli media reports, which could raise ‘significant concerns’ in Israel, which has also confirmed that it will maintain an indefinite military presence in the occupied Syrian territories after the fall of Assad.
According to Israeli public radio corporation KAN, quoted by the Anatolia news agency, ‘senior White House officials conveyed a message to their Israeli counterparts that President Trump intends to withdraw thousands of US troops from Syria’. KAN added that ‘the withdrawal of US forces from Syria will raise significant concerns in Tel Aviv’.
Pentagon sources confirmed last December that the US maintains some 2,000 US troops deployed in Syria, where Washington has in recent years supported the so-called SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), a coalition of armed groups composed mainly of the YPG, the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, an armed group recognised as a terrorist organisation by the US itself that has caused thousands of deaths in attacks in Turkey. White House support for the YPG/SDF has been a constant source of tension between Washington and Ankara, especially during the Democratic administrations of Obama and Biden.
On the sidelines of Trump’s announcement, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the same day during a visit to Mount Hermon – occupied by the Israeli army since the end of the Assad dictatorship – that his country will maintain its military presence in the region indefinitely: ‘We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria, from here to the Suwayda-Damascus axis. We will act against any threat,’ he warned.
The international community, including regional Arab countries and the United Nations, have unsuccessfully condemned the occupation of this demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights established in the 1974 cessation of hostilities agreement with Syria, which Israel now considers de facto annulled. Precisely Arab nations in the region such as Jordan, Egypt and Qatar have also harshly criticised Trump’s proposal to ‘cleanse’ Gaza by expelling its entire Palestinian population and sending them to other countries.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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