Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Sunday warned US President Donald Trump of withdrawing the US troops from Syria, saying it would lead to a resurgence of ISIS and increased Iranian hegemony over Syria.
“It’d be the single worst decision the president could make,” Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on the Fox News Sunday program.
“We got ISIL (ISIS) on the ropes. You want to let them off the ropes, remove American soldiers,” he added.
With ISIS having lost almost all the territory it once held in Syria, Trump has told advisers he wants an early exit of US troops.
Graham noted that there were still more than 3,000 ISIS fighters, “roaming all over Syria”, warning that if the US withdrew its troops, ISIS militants would be reorganized, war between Turkey and the Kurds would come out of control, and Damascus would be given to the Iranians.
“There are over 3,000 ISIS fighters still roaming around Syria. We’ve got troops there to protect us and to protect the region,” he said.
“When it comes to Syria, do not read the Obama playbook, one foot in, one foot out,” Graham stressed. “This is a disaster in the making.”
The senator emphasized that all US military advisers have underlined the need to keep the US forces in Syria to work with the Kurds, stressing the importance of easing tensions between Turkey and the Kurdish forces and ensure that the city of Raqqa does not fall again in the grip of ISIS.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that some 20 fighters loyal to the Syrian regime have been killed in the last 24 hours in attacks launched by ISIS in eastern Syria, where extremists have lost most of the areas they controlled.
The Observatory said that 19 pro-regime fighters have been killed in several attacks by jihadists in the last 24 hours in and around the town of Bokamal.
