But Mr. Haass worries that if Mr. Trump completely pulls troops from Syria, “we may be giving up whatever limited leverage we had for nothing.”“It’s not clear that we have established any understandings about conditions on the American withdrawal,” Mr. Haas said. “Have we set any red lines with the Turks about how they will handle the Kurds? For a brief moment early in his presidency, it looked like Mr. Trump’s view of America’s role in Syria might be evolving and broadening. That false turn came in April 2017, after Mr. Assad’s forces used chemical weapons in an attack that killed more than 80 civilians in an Idlib Province neighborhood that opposed Mr. Assad’s brutal rule. Mr. Trump, operating from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, with President Xi Jinping of China waiting at his dinner table, ordered an airstrike against a Syrian base where the attack had originated.

Source: New York Times December 19, 2018 22:30 UTC