Top US Envoy In Fight Against IS Group Resigns: Official
Sumaira FH Published December 23, 2018 | 03:33 AM
Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Dec, 2018 ) :Brett McGurk, the special US envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State group, has resigned, a State Department official said Saturday.
His resignation, effective December 31, comes just after Donald Trump abruptly ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Syria as well as the announcement that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was quitting, citing key disagreements with the US president.
Just last week McGurk, a Barack Obama appointee who Trump kept on, said "nobody is declaring a mission accomplished" in the battle against IS -- just days before the president's stunning announcement of victory against the IS movement.
Trump -- who postponed his holiday vacation as failed budget talks triggered a partial US government shutdown -- again on Saturday said "ISIS is largely defeated." "When I became President, ISIS was going wild," the president tweeted. "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!" McGurk reportedly said in his resignation letter that IS militants were in fact not defeated, and that prematurely withdrawing US troops could foster conditions allowing the IS to amass power in the region once more.
The 45 year-old top envoy was set to leave his position in February, but reportedly felt he could no longer continue in the job after Trump's declaration.
The news capped a chaotic week that saw Mattis -- seen as a voice of moderation in the mercurial Trump White House -- quit after telling the president he could not go along with the Syria decision.
The shock troop pullout will leave thousands of Kurdish fighters -- which the Pentagon spent years training and arming against IS -- vulnerable to Turkish attack.
"It would be reckless if we were just to say, 'Well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now,'" McGurk had told journalists earlier this month.
"I think anyone who's looked at a conflict like this would agree with that."
Related Topics
Recent Stories
Mired in crisis, Boeing reports another loss
Session Awarding Ceremony 2024 held at Cadet College Muzaffarabad
Austrian ski great Hirscher to make comeback under Dutch flag
Pakistan, Japan agrees to convene 'Economic Policy Dialogue'
FM Dar conveys deepest sympathy on torrential rains devastation in UAE
Spain PM Sanchez says weighing resignation after wife's graft probe
Tennis: ATP/WTA Madrid Open results - 1st update
Long-lost Klimt portrait auctioned off for 30 mn euros
Osaka seals first win on clay since 2022 in Madrid
Earthquake jolts Karachi
Sindh minister orders operation after attack on police in Ghotki
TikTok to fight US ban law in courts
More Stories From World
-
Time for 'democratic transition' in Venezuela: opposition candidate to AFP
12 minutes ago -
Spain's Pedro Sanchez : a risk-taker with a flair for survival
22 minutes ago -
Football: French Ligue 1 table
42 minutes ago -
Nadal will only play French Open if he can 'compete well'
52 minutes ago -
Ukraine, Israel, TikTok: the massive aid package before US Congress
52 minutes ago -
TikTok to fight US ban law in courts
1 hour ago
-
Football: French Ligue 1 results
1 hour ago -
Spain PM Sanchez says weighing resignation after wife's graft probe
2 hours ago -
Long-lost Klimt portrait auctioned off for 30 mn euros
2 hours ago -
TikTok to fight US ban law in courts
3 hours ago -
Anger among Ukrainians in Poland as Kyiv halts passport renewals
3 hours ago -
Teenage girl arrested after stabbing at Welsh school
3 hours ago