By: The Associated Press, July 20, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has decided to halt the CIA's years-long covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the regime of the nation's president Bashar al-Assad. Russia had long pushed the United States to end the program.
The phasing out of the secret program was reported by The Washington
Post on Wednesday. Officials told the newspaper that ending the
operation reflects Trump's interest in finding ways to work with Russia.
Russia long saw the anti-Assad program as an assault on its interests.
Ending the plan, in addition to appeasing Russian President Vladimir
Putin, is also an acknowledgment of the United States' limited ability
to remove Assad from power.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders declined to comment on
the reported end of the program and said she did not know if it was
discussed during a pair of conversations — including one just revealed
on Tuesday — that Trump had with Putin at an international summit
earlier this month.
The CIA declined comment on the report.
The White House had previously condemned Assad and just three months
ago Trump launched dozens of airstrikes against a Syrian air base after
the United States accused the Syrian regime of using chemical weapons on
its own people.
After the Trump-Putin meeting, the United States and Russia announced
an agreement to back a new cease-fire in southwest Syria, where many of
the CIA-supported rebels have worked.
Trump made the decision nearly a month ago, after an Oval Office
meeting with national security adviser H.R. McMaster and CIA Director
Mike Pompeo, according to the newspaper. And officials told The
Washington Post that the move to end the program to arm the anti-Assad
rebels was not a condition of the cease-fire.
