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IPFS News Link • Trump Administration

How Trump Thwarted Calculated Israeli Effort to Keep U.S. in Syria

• By Gareth Porter The American Conservative

They worked hard only to have their plans scuttled. But don't expect them to stop the pressure.

The Pentagon was not the only party pressing Donald Trump to keep troops in Syria last year. It turns out the Israeli government and its supporters in Washington were working very hard to get the Trump administration to use America's military presence there to support an Israeli campaign of airstrikes aimed at threatening war with Iran.

The Israeli strategy was aimed at dividing Russia from Iran and thus putting pressure on Tehran to withdraw its military personnel from Syria. A campaign by a pro-Israel think tank actually succeeded in getting such a policy ready for Trump's approval last fall—although it was not supported by some Pentagon officials.