Story highlights Kremlin says issue of US support for Syrian rebels didn't come up at Trump-Putin G20 meetingEnd of program wouldn't affect Pentagon's plans to support anti-ISIS rebel groups, report adds(CNN) US President Donald Trump has ordered the CIA to discontinue a program of arming and training anti-Assad rebels in Syria, according to a report in the Washington Post which cites unnamed US officials. The move is seen as controversial, given Russia's opposition to the rebels and Moscow's strong support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "It's a strategic mistake.... (support for the rebels) was a pressure point on Assad and a pressure point on the Iranians... and the Russians," according to Bob Baer, CNN Intelligence and security analyst and former CIA operative. We should've used this, we should've demanded, for example, safe zones so the Sunnis wouldn't get hit from the air... so this is just inexplicable, why he would do this. "He's lost his pressure point... it's crazy, frankly, I've never seen anything like it."

Source: CNN July 20, 2017 06:53 UTC