US Senator Graham Backs Trump Plan To Leave Small Contingent Of Forces In Syria

President Donald Trump's plan to leave a small contingent of forces in Syria will ensure that the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) will not return, Senator Lindsey Graham said in a press release

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd February, 2019) US President Donald Trump's plan to leave a small contingent of forces in Syria will ensure that the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) will not return, Senator Lindsey Graham said in a press release.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders in an earlier statement said that the United States would leave a small peacekeeping group of about 200 personnel in Syria "for a period of time."

"I applaud President Trump's decision to leave a small contingent of American forces in Syria as part of an international stabilizing force," Graham said on Thursday. "This will ensure ISIS [IS] does not return and Iran does not fill the vacuum that would have been left if we completely withdrew."

Graham told defense officials that leaving zero troops in Syria would be the "dumbest" idea he ever heard, media reported on Wednesday.

Graham made the comments to US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan during a meeting in Munich on February 15.

Trump announced in December that the United States would leave Syria. However, no exact deadline for the return of 2,000 troops has been revealed by US officials yet.

The US troops have been operating in Syria as part of an international coalition for about five years without the permission of Syrian authorities or the UN Security Council. The United States has, in particular, supported the Kurdish-led militia controlling the territories to the east of the Euphrates and opposing the Syrian government.