Donald Trump could be planning his first visit to Australia as US President as early as July. Picture: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Donald Trump could be planning his first visit to Australia as US President as early as July. Picture: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta

DONALD Trump could be planning his first visit to Australia as US President as early as July.

The White House has reportedly had "very advanced" security discussions for a potential visit this year after Mr Trump backed out of a planned visit last November after cancelling a trip to the APEC Summit in Papua New Guinea.

Mr Trump's national security adviser John Bolton will visit Australia next week, when the new US ambassador Arthur Culvahouse will take up residence in Canberra.

Barack Obama was the last sitting US president to visit Australia in November, 2011.

But senior government sources said on Friday night they were not aware of any plans for a Trump visit.

A July visit would fall after the federal election, expected in May, but Seven News on Friday night reported dates later in the year were understood to have also been planned.

Organisers of the Presidents Cup golf tournament, to be staged at Royal Melbourne in December, have also held out hope the golf-mad New Yorker would visit.

Mr Trump's international trips have been plagued by mass protests.</s>The United States says it will at least temporarily leave 200 “peacekeeping” troops in Syria after a planned pullout of the main U.S. force from the war-torn country.

 

 “A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a brief statement on February 21.

 

 President Donald Trump surprised U.S. lawmakers and international allies in December by announcing he intends to withdraw all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. The president said the troops were no longer needed, asserting that Islamic State (IS) insurgents had been defeated.

 

 Trump received criticism from Republicans, Democrats, and some foreign officials for what they have called a hastily planned withdrawal of the troops, with many saying it leaves Kurdish allies at the mercy of the Turks and hands a victory to Russia and Iran.

 

 Moscow and Tehran back the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country's seven-year civil war and have provided key military support to keep his government in power. The United States and Turkey back differing antigovernment forces.

 

 The White House announcement came after Trump spoke by phone to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The statement said the two presidents agreed to "continue coordinating on the creation of a potential safe zone" in Syria.

 

 The United States and Turkey are NATO allies, but tensions have been raised in recent years over a number of issues, including Washington’s support of Kurdish forces in the region. Ankara considers Kurdish fighters to be terrorists with links to Kurdish separatists operating in Turkey.

 

 The U.S.-backed Kurdish troops have been fighting to expel IS insurgents from their remaining small enclaves in Syria. Some military officials have expressed concerns that the militants could regroup if U.S. forces fully pull out.

 

 The timeline for the U.S. pullout remains uncertain.

 

 Trump on February 6 said he was close to declaring the total defeat of the IS "caliphate" in Syria, but he has not yet made the statement.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will leave about 400 U.S. troops split between two different regions of Syria, a senior administration official said on Friday, a reversal by President Donald Trump that could pave the way for U.S. allies to keep troops in Syria.

Trump had ordered the withdrawal of all 2,000 U.S. troops Syria in December after he said they had defeated Islamic State militants in Syria. The abrupt decision sparked an outcry from allies and U.S. lawmakers and was a factor in Jim Mattis’ resignation as defence secretary.

But Trump was persuaded by advisers on Thursday that about 200 U.S. troops would join what is expected to be a total commitment of about 800 to 1,500 troops from European allies to set up and observe a safe zone being negotiated for northeastern Syria, the official told reporters.

About 200 other U.S. troops will remain at the U.S. military outpost of Tanf, near the border with Iraq and Jordan, the official said.

Until now, European allies have balked at providing troops unless they received a firm commitment that Washington was still committed to the region.

Despite the shift, Trump told reporters on Friday “I’m not reversing course” on Syria, arguing the remaining troops would be “a very small, tiny fraction” of the forces who would ensure that Islamic State does not regroup.

Officials said the numbers agreed on this week were not firm and could still change.

“We don’t want to see a resurgence of ISIS,” the official said, using an acronym for Islamic State.

Leaving even a small group of U.S. troops in Syria could pave the way for European allies to commit hundreds of troops to help observe a potential safe zone in northeastern Syria.

Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been in talks with European counterparts about the safe zone in northeastern Syria.

But on Monday, U.S. officials concluded that Europeans would not be willing to go it alone without some American participation, the official said.

The combat-ready U.S. and European forces will help keep the peace between Kurdish forces, who supported the fight against Islamic State, and Turkey, which fears attacks from militant groups, the official said.

The safe zone also will serve as a bulwark against Iran’s influence, the official said.

The Tanf garrison, where the other 200 troops would remain, was set up when Islamic State fighters controlled eastern Syria bordering Iraq. But since the militants were driven out, Tanf has assumed a role as part of a U.S. strategy to contain Iran’s military buildup.

“Yesterday I asked the president for a couple hundred - he said yes,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“It’s not a firm number, and the president understood that when we asked him,” the official said.

Trump made the decision just before speaking to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan by phone on Thursday, and suggested to Erdogan that Turkish military officials continue the discussions while visiting their counterparts in Washington on Friday.

There were no firm commitments on troops for the safe zone from European allies as of Friday, and those talks continue.

“I’m very optimistic about it, but it’s not done yet,” the official said.

Turkey wants to set up a safe zone with logistical support from allies and says it should be cleared of the U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara considers a terrorist group.

Before the start of a meeting with his Turkish counterpart at the Pentagon, acting U.S. Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the mission had not changed.

“The transition that we are working towards is stabilization and to enhance the security capability of local security forces,” Shanahan said.

Another U.S. official said Dunford had been working on the issue and speaking with allies for some time.

The official said the safe zone would not include Turkish troops or “Syrian opposition forces” and U.S. troops would bring specific capabilities like intelligence and logistics.

Dunford said that he was confident that allies would step up in Syria.</s>The U.S. is not completely pulling out of Syria just yet.

Some American troops will remain for the time being, the White House announced Thursday. In a one-sentence statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: "A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time."

It's unclear how long the troops will remain there.

According to The New York Times, the announcement came after a phone call between President Trump and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two leaders agreed to create a "safe zone" in Syria.

In December, the White House said it would pull all 2,000 troops from Syria, a reversal of U.S. policy that reportedly was met with disapproval within the Pentagon and prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign in protest. Troops began withdrawing in January, sparking criticism that the U.S. was leaving before it had completely eradicated the Islamic State presence there.

At a security conference in Munich last week, the U.S. encouraged its European allies to remain in Syria even as it was withdrawing. German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized the U.S. plan. "Is it a good thing to immediately remove American troops from Syria, or will it not strengthen Russia and Iran's hand?" she said.

Some have worried that Russia and Iran would fill the vacuum created by a U.S. pullout.

A senior administration official told The Times that the decision to leave some troops in Syria was intended to encourage France and Britain to also keep troops there. European countries had "unanimously" told the U.S. they wouldn't stay if American forces left, The Washington Post reported, quoting a senior administration official.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, applauded the decision. "This will ensure ISIS does not return and Iran does not fill the vacuum that would have been left if we completely withdrew," he said in a statement.

Graham, who had been critical of Trump's December decision to pull all troops, said keeping forces there ensures that the U.S. won't repeat the mistakes it made in Iraq. "This also ensures Turkey and SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] elements that helped us defeat ISIS will not go into conflict," he said.</s>The US military will keep around 200 troops in Syria after US President Donald Trump’s pullout from the war-torn country, the White House said Thursday.

“A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time,” White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said.

The announcement comes amid fierce criticism of Trump’s decision to withdraw America’s 2,000 or so troops from Syria by April 30, with members of his own Republican Party blasting the move.

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In December, Trump declared victory over the Islamic State group in Syria, even though thousands of jihadists remain and fighting continues around their last holdout.

Critics have decried a number of possible outcomes from a precipitous withdrawal, including a Turkish attack on US-backed Kurdish forces and a resurgence of IS.

Israel has repeatedly warned in recent years that Iran is seeking to establish a military presence in Syria, where it is fighting alongside its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah and Russia to restore the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israeli officials have also warned that America’s absence would open the door for Tehran to create a so-called “land bridge” from Iran, through Iraq and Syria, into Lebanon and to the Mediterranean Sea.

Over the last several years, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against targets linked to Iran.

Sanders did not provide additional details, but the troops’ “peacekeeping” designation could pave the way for European allies to commit forces for such a mission.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan visited Europe last week where he attempted to convince allies to maintain a troop presence in Syria after the US pulls out.

But he struggled to persuade other countries why they should risk their forces with America gone.

Trump earlier Thursday spoke with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and the two men discussed Syria, according to a White House summary.

“The two presidents agreed to continue coordinating on the creation of a potential safe zone” in Syria, the readout said.

At the height of its rule, IS imposed its brutal ideology on a territory roughly the size of the United Kingdom, attracting thousands of supporters from abroad.

But the jihadists have since lost almost all their territory save for a tiny sliver of around half a square kilometer (a fifth of a square mile) in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are working towards evacuating civilians remaining in the holdout, so they can polish off the dying IS “caliphate” whether through an assault or a surrender deal.

Syria’s Kurds have long demanded the repatriation of foreigners accused of belonging to IS in their custody, but their home countries have been reluctant.</s>(CNN) President Donald Trump has agreed to keep about 400 US troops in Syria after the withdrawal of most US forces there this spring, a senior administration official said Friday.

Trump agreed on Thursday to keep about 200 US troops as part of planned multinational force that would maintain a safe zone in northeastern Syria, the official said. This force would be in addition to the 200 troops the US is planning to maintain after the withdrawal at its base in at-Tanf, Syria, the official said.

Trump on Friday denied that the decision represented a reversal of his previous position.

"I'm not reversing course. I have done something nobody else has been able to do," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

He continued, "At the same time, we can leave a small force, along with others in the force, whether it's NATO troops or whoever it might be, so that it doesn't start up again. And I'm OK. It's a very small, tiny fraction of the people we have and a lot of people like that idea and I'm open to ideas."

Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan refused to confirm Syria troop numbers Friday while addressing reporters at the Pentagon prior to a meeting with his Turkish counterpart.

"I'm not going to talk troop numbers or troop movements but I think we saw some good progress yesterday and today's meeting really is about talking next steps," Shanahan said.

The US and NATO allies are in the process of assembling what officials are calling a "monitoring and observer" force of roughly 800 to 1,500 troops to maintain a safe zone in northeastern Syria. The goal of the force would be to maintain a buffer between Turkey and US-allied Syrian opposition forces to ensure that neither side carries out attacks on the other.

A US defense official said the force would also have the aim of preventing an ISIS resurgence in northeast Syria though it is not clear whether they would be involved in training or advising local forces as part of this effort.

The US initially planned to only provide air support -- not ground troops -- to the observer force, but NATO allies objected and said they would not contribute troops toward such a mission without a US troop commitment, the official said.

It became clear to US officials on Monday that the observer force would never become a reality absent an American commitment of ground troops. After consulting with State and Defense Department officials, national security adviser John Bolton met with Trump on Thursday and convinced him to agree to commit "a couple hundred" troops, said a senior administration official, who briefed a small group of reporters on Friday on the plans on condition of anonymity.

The defense official confirmed that Bolton convinced Trump to extend a US presence on Thursday.

A US official told CNN Thursday that the remaining US troops will be able to provide unique high-end capabilities -- such as logistics, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and calling in airstrikes -- that would help encourage coalition countries like France and the United Kingdom to also keep their troops in Syria to help ensure the safe zone.

The decision ticks up the number of troops that Trump is agreeing to maintain in Syria after he hastily announced his plans to withdraw US troops from Syria late last year, stunning US officials and allies and triggering the resignation of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. US officials and allies have sought to mitigate the risk to US-allied Syrian opposition forces and to ensure that the US can adequately respond to the potential resurgence of ISIS in the region.

Planning for the multinational observer force stems from an idea that Turkey proposed to Bolton and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford during a visit in January, amid concerns about the potential for conflict between Turkey and US-backed Kurdish forces. The Joint Chiefs has since been leading discussions with NATO allies to assemble the force.

Turkish officials have expressed concerns that US-backed Kurdish forces would carry out terrorist attacks in Turkey, and the US-backed forces have worried about the fret of a Turkish invasion.

Speaking prior to his meeting with Dunford and Shanahan Friday, Turkish Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar told reporters that they were "here to discuss policy issue in detail," saying that Turkey had no issue with the Syrian Kurds but that they did consider Kurdish militia groups backed by the US to be linked to groups that Ankara views as terrorist organizations.

The senior administration official made clear that the observer force would not be a United Nations-chartered peacekeeping force and would not face the same restrictive rules of engagement that those forces face, but declined to elaborate on what those rules of engagement would be. The forces would, however, be combat-ready, the official said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff are continuing to hammer out discussions with NATO allies, but given that a commitment of US troops was the Europeans' main objection, US officials are optimistic that this force will be assembled.

The senior administration official briefed reporters on Friday after White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a brief one-line statement asserting that "a small peace keeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time." That figure did not take into account the presence of another 200 troops expected to remain at at-Tanf.

The defense official would not say how many troops are to remain in at-Tanf, but confirmed that the US military would maintain a presence there as part of its effort to target ISIS remnants and prevent the terror group's resurgence.

US officials hope the multinational force in northeastern Syria will minimize the risk of conflict between Turkey and US-backed forces in Syria.

US officials are aiming to withdraw most US troops from Syria by April, but a senior administration official said Friday that date could shift depending on how quickly the multinational observer force is assembled.

This story has been updated with additional developments Friday.</s>NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish-led forces in Syria said they would complete the evacuation of thousands of civilians from Islamic State’s last redoubt in the area on Friday, and welcomed a White House reversal of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out all U.S. troops.

With Washington’s allies poised for victory against Islamic State fighters making a final stand in a pocket near the Iraqi border, the White House announced plans on Thursday to keep “a small peacekeeping force” of 200 troops in Syria.

The announcement partially reversed Trump’s abrupt decision in December to withdraw the entire 2,000-strong U.S. contingent, which had alarmed Washington’s Kurdish allies and prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to quit.

An administration official later put the total number of troops to stay at 400, split between a safe zone being negotiated for northeastern Syria and a U.S. military base at Tanf, near the border with Iraq and Jordan.

Although the U.S. contingent would now be small, the official indicated that the 200 troops in the northwest would be part of a wider commitment of about 800-1,500 troops also drawn from European allies to set up and observe a safe zone.

Kurdish leaders suggested the U.S. troop decision could have a large impact on the fate of the area, preventing a security vacuum. Washington could keep control of the air space and European allies could complement the force with more troops.

The planned assault on the final Islamic State redoubt in the area, Baghouz, would effectively end the territorial rule of the jihadist group, which ruled around a third of both Iraq and Syria at its self-proclaimed Caliphate’s height four years ago.

Reporters near the front line at Baghouz saw dozens of trucks leaving loaded with civilians, and empty ones driving inside accompanied by fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia.

Mustafa Bali, an SDF spokesman, said the evacuation would be completed on Friday, with thousands of civilians still inside the pocket from an estimated 7,000 at the start of the day, though by nightfall it was unclear if it had been completed. More than 20,000 civilians have left Baghouz in recent weeks, according to previous SDF estimates.

The U.S.-led coalition which supports the SDF has said Islamic State’s “most hardened fighters” are holed up inside.

“If we succeed in evacuating all the civilians, at any moment we will take the decision to storm Baghouz or force the terrorists to surrender,” said Bali.

Though the fall of Baghouz would mark a milestone in the campaign against Islamic State, the militant group is still seen as a security threat, using guerrilla tactics and still holding some territory in a remote area west of the Euphrates River.

The battle against Islamic State in the area has taken place since December in the shadow of Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw all U.S. troops, which raised doubt about the future of the fighters that had served as U.S. allies on the ground.

The Kurdish-led authorities in the north welcomed the White House reversal. They had feared that a total U.S. withdrawal would leave their area exposed to attack by Turkey, which sees the main Kurdish militia as a national security threat.

“We evaluate the White House decision ... positively,” Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of foreign relations in the region held by the U.S.-backed SDF told Reuters.

“This decision may encourage other European states, particularly our partners in the international coalition against terrorism, to keep forces in the region,” Omar added. “I believe that keeping a number of American troops and a larger number of (other) coalition troops, with air protection, will play a role in securing stability and protecting the region too.”

The SDF’s top commander earlier this week called for 1,000 to 1,500 international troops to remain in Syria to help fight Islamic State and expressed hope Washington would halt Trump’s plans for a total pullout.

A Western diplomat said it remained to be seen whether European allies would contribute troops, or whether the force would be able to secure the area.

“Even if 200 troops remain and the U.S. decides to continue claiming the airspace, it’s not clear whether that would convince Britain, France and other partners to stay — and whether that could keep the Syrian regime out of the northeast for now, or Turkey, or an IS resurgence.”

The Kurds, who want to preserve the autonomy they have carved out, have made overtures to President Bashar al-Assad, urging government forces to deploy at the borders as Washington withdraws. The U.S. decision may strengthen the Kurds’ hand.

“I believe that these forces in this region ... will be a motivation, an incentive and also a means of pressure on Damascus to try seriously to have a dialogue to resolve the Syrian crisis,” Omar said.</s>President Donald Trump's administration, which abruptly announced in December that it was pulling out of Syria, said Thursday that it will keep 200 U.S. troops in the country for now.

"A small peace keeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for period of time," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a one-sentence statement.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who had harshly criticized Trump's decision to pull U.S. forces out of Syria, applauded the president's decision to leave a few hundred as part of an "international stabilizing force."

Graham said it will ensure that Turkey will not get into a conflict with Syrian Democratic Forces, which helped the United States fight Islamic State militants. Turkey views Kurdish members of the Syrian Democratic Forces as terrorists.

Moreover, Graham said leaving a small force in Syria will serve as a check on Iranian ambitions and help ensure that Islamic State fighters do not try to return.

"A safe zone in Syria made up of international forces is the best way to achieve our national security objectives of continuing to contain Iran, ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS, protecting our Turkish allies, and securing the Turkish border with Syria," Graham said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

Trump's decision to pull 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria, which he initially said would be rapid but later slowed down, shocked U.S. allies and angered the Kurds in Syria, who are vulnerable to attack by Turkey. It also prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis and drew criticism in Congress. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, called the decision a "betrayal of our Kurdish partners."

Many believe the Islamic State threat won't end with the pocket's recapture and an insurgency is underway. In a foreboding sign Thursday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for back-to-back suicide attacks that hit a village miles away, leaving more than a dozen people dead in a rare targeting of civilians.

It's unclear where the 200 remaining U.S. troops will be stationed.

The U.S. military has a limited network of bases inside Syria. Troops work mostly out of small camps in remote parts of the country's northeast.

Also, U.S. troops are among 200 to 300 coalition troops at a garrison in southern Syria known as al-Tanf, where they train and accompany local Syrian opposition forces on patrols to counter the IS group. Al-Tanf is on a vital road linking Iranian-backed forces from Tehran all the way to southern Lebanon -- and Israel's doorstep.

"On Syria, the two presidents agreed to continue coordinating on the creation of a potential safe zone," the White House said in a statement about the call.

The White House also said acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford will be hosting their Turkish counterparts in Washington this week for further talks.

The Syrian Democratic Forces is currently involved in a standoff over the final sliver of land held by the Islamic State in eastern Syria, close to the Iraq border.

A few hundred people -- many of them women and children -- were evacuated Wednesday from the group's tiny tent camp on the banks of the Euphrates River, signaling an imminent end to the territorial rule of the militants' self-declared "caliphate" that once stretched across a third of both Syria and Iraq.

Some 300 Islamic State militants, along with hundreds of civilians believed to be mostly their families, have been under siege for more than a week in the tent camp in the village of Baghouz. It wasn't clear how many civilians remain holed up inside, along with the militants.

More trucks were sent in Thursday to the tip of a corridor leading to the camp to evacuate more people, but Associated Press journalists on the ground outside Baghouz said no civilians emerged.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed Syrian forces handed over more than 150 Iraqi members of the group to Iraq, an Iraqi security official said Thursday.

Information for this article was contributed by Deb Riechmann, Robert Burns and Zeina Karam of The Associated Press.</s>President Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting earlier in the day said he will not reverse course on his decision to pull US troops out of Syria. The comment came just hours after reports that senior officials confirmed the United States would leave some 400 troops in the country.

"I am confident we can maintain a campaign," Dunford said on Friday.

On Thursday, the White House said a small contingent of forces would be left behind in Syria that will include 200 in a peacekeeping role.

In December, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would pull out its forces, which had been operating in Syria for years as part of the international coalition fighting against the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia).

READ MORE: US Likely to Retain Control of Northeast Syria After Troop Pullout — Official

Notably, the US forces have been operating in Syria without the authorization of the Middle Eastern country’s government or the UN Security Council. Washington has been supporting the Kurdish-led militia controlling the territories to the east of the Euphrates and opposing the Syrian government. Ankara, in its turn, sees the militia linked to the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the authorities have listed as a terrorist organization.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will leave “a small peacekeeping group” of 200 American troops in Syria for a period of time after a U.S. pullout, the White House said on Thursday, as President Donald Trump pulled back from a complete withdrawal.

Trump in December ordered a withdrawal of the 2,000 American troops in Syria on the defeat of the last remnants of the Islamic State militants there.

But Trump has been under pressure from multiple advisers to adjust his policy to ensure the protection of Kurdish forces, who supported the fight against Islamic State and who might now be threatened by Turkey, and to serve as a bulwark against Iran’s influence.

“A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The decision was announced after Trump spoke by phone to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. A White House statement said the two leaders agreed, regarding Syria, to “continue coordinating on the creation of a potential safe zone.”

A senior administration official said Trump’s decision had been in the works for some time. It was unclear how long the 200 troops would be expected to remain in the area or where exactly they would be deployed.

Leaving even a small group of U.S. troops in Syria could pave the way for European allies to commit hundreds of troops to help set up and observe a potential safe zone in northeast Syria.

“This is a clear direction to our allies and coalition members that we will be on the ground in some capacity,” the senior administration official said.

The decision to retain peacekeepers could help Trump overcome criticism that he had ordered a precipitous withdrawal from Syria that could lead to Islamic State’s gathering strength.

Turkey wants to set up a safe zone with logistical support from allies and says it should be cleared of the U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara considers a terrorist group.

On Thursday, acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan met with his counterpart from Belgium. Before the meeting, Belgium’s minister of defense, Didier Reynders, was asked whether he would be open to keeping troops if there were no American forces left.

“We are waiting for preparation of the withdrawal of U.S. troops and we are waiting now for more discussions about the … if it’s possible and good collaboration with the defense department but it was the beginning of the discussion in Munich,” Reynders said.

Until now, European allies have balked at providing troops unless they received a firm commitment that Washington was still committed to the region.

U.S. officials have told Reuters that while in Munich last week, Shanahan held a meeting on Syria with a small group of defense ministers. In the meeting they talked about needing some sort of security arrangement in northeast Syria after the United States has left. Shanahan will meet his Turkish counterpart on Friday.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking at the Munich Security Conference last week, said the top U.S. general would ask allies to contribute forces to help stabilize areas liberated from Islamic State.
U.S. President Donald Trump agrees to keep about 400 U.S. troops in Syria.