Senator Graham more upbeat on Syria troop withdrawal after Trump meeting
A senior Republican US senator said he emerged from a White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Sunday reassured that Trump is committed to defeating Islamic State even as he plans to withdraw US troops from Syria. Senator Lindsey Graham had warned that removing all 2,000 US troops from Syria would hurt national security by allowing Islamic State to rebuild, betraying US-backed Kurdish fighters of the YPG militia battling remnants of the militant group, and enhancing Iran’s ability to threaten Israel. During a morning television interview, Graham said he would ask Trump to slow down the troop withdrawal, which was announced earlier in December and drew widespread criticism. An ally of Trump, though he has opposed some of his foreign policy decisions, Graham was more upbeat after the meeting. “We talked about Syria. He told me some things I didn’t know that made me feel a lot better about where we’re headed in Syria,” Graham, an influential voice on national security policy ...
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