{"id":28554,"date":"2019-01-10T12:24:30","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T12:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28554"},"modified":"2019-01-10T12:24:30","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T12:24:30","slug":"us-to-pull-forces-from-syria-continue-fight-against-isil-pompeo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28554","title":{"rendered":"US to pull forces from Syria, continue fight against ISIL: Pompeo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would withdraw its troops from Syria while continuing to finish the battle against ISIL.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart\u00a0Sameh Shoukry<\/span> in Cairo on Thursday, Pompeo said that Washington remained a steadfast partner in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“President Trump’s decision to withdraw our troops has been made. We will do that,” the top diplomat said.<\/p>\n

Pompeo is in Egypt<\/a> as part of a Middle East tour aimed at reassuring Arab partners after President Donald Trump<\/a> announced his plans to withdraw US forces from Syria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He met Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi<\/a>\u00a0in Ittihadeya Palace\u00a0on Thursday to discuss security and economic cooperation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He is also scheduled to deliver a speech at the American University in Cairo on Washington’s broader Middle East objectives.<\/p>\n

Pompeo arrived in Egypt after stops in Jordan<\/a> and Iraq<\/a> where he sought to assure leaders that withdrawing from Syria does not mean the US is abandoning the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL<\/a>, also known as ISIS) armed group or easing pressure on Iran.<\/p>\n

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo starts Middle East visit in Jordan<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

He\u00a0has chosen Cairo as the symbolic venue for the speech seemingly intended to repudiate the message in former US President Barack Obama<\/a>‘s landmark address to the Muslim world from the Egyptian capital when he first took office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Obama pledged engagement with Iran and an understanding of the need for freedom and democracy that led to the Arab Spring<\/a> revolutions.<\/p>\n

Pompeo intends to assert the Trump message that Iran is to be countered at all costs while assuring that the US<\/a>\u00a0remains deeply committed to the region despite the America First rhetoric emanating from the White House.<\/p>\n

From Egypt, Pompeo will travel to the Gulf Arab states – Saudi Arabia, Qatar<\/a>, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain<\/a>, Oman and Kuwait<\/a> – to press the case.<\/p>\n

In Saudi Arabia<\/a>, he faces\u00a0the thorny problem of dealing with global outrage against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (also known as MBS<\/a>), accused of conspiring to murder Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Inside Story: Who killed Jamal Khashoggi? (24:46)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would withdraw its troops from Syria while continuing to finish the battle against ISIL. Speaking at a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart\u00a0Sameh Shoukry in Cairo on Thursday, Pompeo said that Washington remained a steadfast partner in the Middle East.\u00a0 “President Trump’s decision to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":28555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}