You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Bolton Says Syria Troop Withdrawal Contingent on Defeating ISIS

HeadlineJan 07, 2019

In Jerusalem, national security adviser John Bolton said that U.S. military withdrawal from Syria would happen only after ISIS is defeated and if Turkey would guarantee they would not try to destroy U.S.-trained Syrian Kurdish fighters. Bolton’s comments contradicted Trump’s initial announcement from December 19 ordering an immediate withdrawal and declaring that the U.S. had “won against ISIS.” At a Cabinet meeting last week, Trump also contradicted his December announcement, stating, “I never said fast or slow.” Bolton also said the U.S. would “absolutely assure” the security of Israel and other regional allies. Bolton is set to meet with officials in Turkey today.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top