The United States has drawn up plans to leave up to 1,000 troops in Syria, months after President Trump pledged a full troop withdrawal that sparked the resignation of his Defense Secretary, according to U.S. officials cited Sunday by The Wall Street Journal. The decision to leave up to 1,000 troops, which would be about half of America’s remaining forces in the war-torn nation, comes after rounds of failed talks between the Trump administration and officials from Europe, Turkey, and the Kurds. The officials have reportedly been working for months to devise a plan for a safe zone in the northeastern part of the country for Syrian refugees, but have not yet been able to agree on who would maintain and patrol it. The move will likely placate American lawmakers, who harshly criticized Trump for his original plan and argued that fully removing American troops would allow ISIS to regain a foothold in the country. Hours after The Wall Street Journal report was released, the Pentagon denied that any change had been made to the troop numbers in Syria and called the article “factually incorrect.” “There has been no change to the plan announced in February,” the agency said in a statement, “and we continue to implement the President’s direction to draw down U.S. forces to a residual presence.”
