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| US anti-Isis envoy Brett McGurk quits over Trump Syria withdrawal | US anti-Isis envoy Brett McGurk quits over Trump Syria withdrawal |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The US envoy to forces fighting to defeat Islamic State has resigned, over Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria. | |
| Brett McGurk’s resignation follows that of Trump’s defense secretary, James Mattis, who announced his departure this week. | |
| Trump’s Syria move pleases dictators and hands initiative to Isis | Trump’s Syria move pleases dictators and hands initiative to Isis |
| As special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat Isis since 2015, McGurk was one of few Obama appointees to stay on under Trump. He is also a former supreme court clerk and served George W Bush as a diplomat, focusing on Iran and Iraq. | |
| CBS News first reported McGurk’s move. Citing anonymous sources, it said he had planned to leave his post in February but had brought his move forward due to a “strong disagreement” with the president’s decision. He will quit at the end of this month and take up a post in academia. The Associated Press said McGurk’s resignation letter to the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, had been described to its reporters. | |
| Mattis resigned on Thursday, issuing a letter of resignation that was implicitly strongly critical of Trump for his neglect of allies and reportedly angered the president. It was widely reported on Friday that the defense secretary quit after Trump made the decision to withdraw from Syria during a conversation with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. | |
| CBS said McGurk was in the region for talks with US Kurdish allies when Trump announced his decision. The Kurds fear attack by Turkey if around 2,000 US troops stationed in Syria are withdrawn. | CBS said McGurk was in the region for talks with US Kurdish allies when Trump announced his decision. The Kurds fear attack by Turkey if around 2,000 US troops stationed in Syria are withdrawn. |
| On 11 December, McGurk told reporters at the state department he thought it was “fair to say Americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate, until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeat is enduring”. | On 11 December, McGurk told reporters at the state department he thought it was “fair to say Americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate, until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeat is enduring”. |
| He said then it would be “reckless” to consider Isis to have been defeated, a claim repeatedly made by Trump. | He said then it would be “reckless” to consider Isis to have been defeated, a claim repeatedly made by Trump. |
| On Twitter on Saturday shortly after McGurk’s departure was reported, Trump defended his decision, writing that US troops had meant to be in Syria “for three months, and that was seven years ago – we never left”. | |
| Jim Mattis's resignation letter to Donald Trump – in full | |
| Trump’s claim was inaccurate. The Syrian civil war began seven years ago, in 2011, but US airstrikes there began in September 2014 and troops were not sent until the following year. | |
| In words that will likely be greeted with dismay among Kurdish forces, the president added: “When I became president, Isis was going wild. Now Isis is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We’re coming home!” | |
| The AP reported on Saturday that an anonymous US official said McGurk had been pushing for the US to allow Kurdish fighters to seek protection from troops allied with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. | |
| The envoy, the report said, argued that the US “had a moral obligation to help prevent the allied fighters from being slaughtered by Turkey”. | |
| Trump administration | Trump administration |
| US foreign policy | US foreign policy |
| US military | US military |
| US national security | US national security |
| Islamic State | Islamic State |
| Syria | Syria |
| Iraq | Iraq |
| news | news |
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