Islam Times - Outgoing US Envoy: There Was Never A Syria Withdrawal

Islam Times - The outgoing US special representative for Syria said he and his team repeatedly misled the US president, Donald Trump, on troop numbers in the war-ravaged country.

In a recent interview with the Defense One website, James Jeffrey rebuffed claims there was a troop withdrawal from northeast Syria, and said the real numbers of soldiers stationed there was "a lot more" than the 200 Trump decided would remain in 2019.

"We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there," Jeffrey said.

In the wide-ranging interview, Jeffrey said despite Trump's repeated announcements that he would withdraw forces from the country, he was always persuaded to keep a small team there.

"What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal," Jeffrey said.

"We then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That's the story."