An ally must be reliable: Macron: Order signed for US mly’s exit from Syria

WASHINGTON: The US military has confirmed that the order to withdraw American troops from Syria had been signed, after President Donald Trump held talks with his Turkish counterpart to negotiate a pullout that has stunned Washignton’s allies.

Trump announced on Wednesday that the roughly 2,000 US troops would leave civil war-racked Syria, where they have been deployed to assist in a multinational fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

"The execute order for Syria has been signed," a US military spokesperson told AFP on Sunday in response to a query, without providing further details. Turkey was a rare ally that lauded Trump’s decision on Syria, a country where it will now have a freer rein to target Kurdish fighters who were armed and trained by the US and played a major role in the war against IS but are deemed terrorists by Ankara.

Trump and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone on Sunday and "agreed to ensure coordination between their countries’ military, diplomatic and other officials to avoid a power vacuum which could result following any abuse of the withdrawal and transition phase in Syria," the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

Trump tweeted that he and Erdogan "discussed (IS), our mutual involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly coordinated pullout of US troops from the area." White House aides cited by The Washington Post said Trump’s advisers have persuaded him to withdraw the troops more slowly than he would like in order not to jeopardize their safety.

A withdrawal could have extraordinary geopolitical implications, and it runs counter to long-established US policy for the region. Thousands of IS jihadists are thought to remain in Syria, but Trump on Wednesday declared that "we’ve won against ISIS," using another acronym for the extremists.

Late on Sunday he tweeted that Erdogan had assured him that any IS fighters remaining will be eliminated. "President @RT_Erdogan of Turkey has very strongly informed me that he will eradicate whatever is left of ISIS in Syria," Trump said in a Tweet.

Repeating a pattern of admiring comments towards global strongmen, Trump added that Erdogan "is a man who can do it." The US president concluded: "Our troops are coming home!"

US politicians -- including those from his own Republican party -- and international allies fear the withdrawal is premature and would further destabilize the already devastated region. A US pullout, said Mutlu Civiroglu, a Kurdish affairs analyst, will open the way "for Turkey to start its operations against the Kurds, and a bloody war will begin."

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday said he "deeply regretted" Trump’s decision, and that "an ally must be reliable." Israel has been careful to point out that it respects the US decision, but analysts say that beneath those public pronouncements are concerns over whether its main enemy Iran will have a freer hand.