Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded Wednesday evening to the White House announcement that the US was withdrawing its troops from Syria.
Netanyahu said in a statement that he had been informed earlier this week of the US intention to withdraw from Syria.
“I spoke the day before yesterday with US President Trump and yesterday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The US administration told me that this was the president’s intention, to withdraw their forces from Syria. They made clear that they have other ways of expressing their influence in the arena,” Netanyahu said.
“This of course is an American decision,” he emphasized. “We will learn its timetable, its mode of operation and, of course, its implications for us."
“In any event, we will take care to protect the security of Israel and defend ourselves from this arena,” he concluded.
The White House confirmed Wednesday that it has started withdrawing US troops from Syria, following reports that the US was considering a complete withdrawal from the country.
“We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed in a statement.
“Five years ago, ISIS was a very powerful and dangerous force in the Middle East, and now the United States has defeated the territorial caliphate,” Sanders explained, noting that the US and its allies “will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support, and any means of infiltrating our borders.”
US President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon that his only reason to have US troops in Syria was to defeat ISIS, a mission which he said the US has accomplished.
“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”