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WP: Trump Ends Covert CIA Program To Arm Syria Militants

WP: Trump Ends Covert CIA Program To Arm Syria Militants
folder_openSyria access_time6 years ago
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Local Editor

US President Donald Trump decided to end the CIA's covert program to arm and train Syria militants battling the Syrian army, according to US officials, the Washington Post reported.

WP: Trump Ends Covert CIA Program To Arm Syria Militants

The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later.

Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trump's interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the US scheme as an assault on its interests. The shuttering of the program is also an acknowledgment of Washington's limited leverage and desire to remove al-Assad from power.

Officials said Trump made the decision to scrap the CIA program nearly a month ago, after an Oval Office meeting with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster ahead of a July 7 meeting in Germany with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Spokesmen for the National Security Council and the CIA declined to comment.
 
After the Trump-Putin meeting, the United States and Russia announced an agreement to back a new cease-fire in southwest Syria, along the Jordanian border, where many of the CIA-backed militants have long operated. Trump described the limited cease-fire deal as one of the benefits of a constructive working relationship with Moscow.

The move to end the secret program to arm Syria militants was not a condition of the cease-fire negotiations, which were already well underway, said US officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the secret program.

Trump's dealings with Russia have been under heavy scrutiny because of the investigations into the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 election.

The decision on the CIA-backed militants will be welcomed by Moscow, which focused its firepower on those fighters after it intervened in Syria in 2015.

Source: Washington Post, Edited by website team

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