WASHINGTON — Top advisers to US President Donald Trump met at the Pentagon on Thursday to discuss Syria and other topics, a defense official says.
The meeting is the first of its kind for Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, who started his new job January 1 following the resignation of his predecessor Jim Mattis.
According to a senior defense official, Shanahan met with National Security Adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
They “discussed a wide variety of topics to include Syria,” the official says.
Mattis quit last month after Trump ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, even though the Islamic State jihadist group still has thousands of fighters in the country and a US pull out would leave Kurdish fighters vulnerable to attack by Turkey.
Shanahan must oversee how the US pulls more than 2,000 troops out of Syria.
Various timelines have been floated, but Trump on Wednesday seemed vague, saying only that it would happen “over a period of time.”
— AFP
Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan arrives at the Pentagon for the first time in his official capacity, on January 2, 2019, in Arlington, Virginia. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP)
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