In response to domestic pressure, Trump agreed to extend the deadline for withdrawal of thousands of US troops from the northeaster Syrian province of al-Hasaka from the initial 30 days previously announced until April this year.
Journalistic warmongers and hawks in think-tanks and among the US establishment have been railing at Trump with implausible arguments for maintaining the presence of US forces in Syria. The attacks on Trump are mainly justified on the pretext of protecting the US allies, the Kurds, from possible extermination by the Turks. Other analysts dare to repeat the absurd US mantra that "ISIS has between 20,000 and 30,000 militants in Syria and Iraq" to justify the continuous occupation of northeast Syria. If these arguments were not enough, others claim that Trump would be delivering the north of Syria to Iranian and Russian scarecrows, or that he would be facilitating the "Iranian-Baghdad-Damascus-Beirut connection".
Trump remains determined to pull out, despite his allies Israel, France and the UK begging him to stay longer in the Levant.
No delay will change the fate of al-Hasaka province or the unfolding course of events:
2019 will mark the return of the northeast province to the control of the Syria government forces; Turkey is choosing its camp; and the Arabs - afraid of becoming orphans like the Kurds - are overwhelming Assad with their warmth, acting as though they had not been waging war on his country since 2011.
As far as concerns the Kurds in al-Hasaka, based in the north-east of the Syrian province, they have offered themselves as human shields to Trump's forces since they considered themselves US allies. Today, following Trump's decision to withdraw his occupation forces, they have come to the clear recognition: the US can't be trusted as an ally. Indeed, president Donald Trump did not consult with his European allies and certainly not with the YPG/SDF Kurds of Syria before deciding on withdrawal of his forces. The YPG, a branch of the PKK in Syria, understand that the continuous presence of the US forces as occupation troops imposes the burden of rebuilding the destroyed cities and infrastructure on the Kurds.
Trump is not willing to undertake this reconstruction, and is failing to gather enough financial aid for this purpose from the Arab oil-rich countries who understand that the war in Syria is over.
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