Trump aide trying to allay Israeli concerns on Syria pullout

The White House has sent national security adviser John Bolton on a mission to allay Israel's concerns about President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from Syria.

The pullout announced before Christmas was initially expected to be completed within weeks, but the timetable has slowed as the president acceded to requests from aides, allies and members of Congress for a more orderly drawdown.

Bolton planned to meet with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials on Sunday before traveling to Turkey.

Israeli officials have expressed alarm that a swift withdrawal of the roughly 2,000 troops could enable Iran to expand its influence and presence in Syria, wracked by a yearslong civil war and the Islamic State militancy.

Trump's move has raised fears about clearing the way for a Turkish assault on Kurdish fighters in Syria who have fought alongside American troops against IS extremists. Turkey considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders.

A Trump administration official told reporters traveling with Bolton that Bolton intended to discuss the pace of the drawdown, as well as American troop levels in the region. Bolton was expected to explain that some US troops based in Syria to fight IS will shift to Iraq with the same mission and that some American forces may remain at a key military outpost in al-Tanf, in southern Syria, to counter growing Iranian activity in the region.

Bolton's also was to convey the message that the United States will be "very supportive" of Israeli strikes against Iranian targets in Syria, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss Bolton's plans before the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the talks.

Bolton warned Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, not to use the US drawdown as a pretext to use chemical weapons against Syrians, saying there is "no change" to the US position that their use is a "red line."
"And if they don't heed the lessons of those two strikes, the next one will be more telling."