Trump reportedly just told the US military to prepare to withdraw from Syria

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

President Donald Trump

• President Donald Trump reportedly ordered US military leaders on Tuesday to prepare to withdraw from Syria.
• Trump also said that US troops training local forces in areas liberated from ISIS could stay, and that other Arab nations need to help with reconstruction.

President Donald Trump ordered US military leaders on Tuesday to prepare to withdraw from Syria, according to the Washington Post, citing a senior administration official.

Trump did not set a date for withdrawal, and also said during a meeting with top national security officials that some US troops training local forces in areas liberated from ISIS would stay, the Washington Post reported.

It remains unclear how many of the approximately 2,000 US troops stationed in Syria would return, given that one of their main objectives was training SDF fighters instrumental in the defeat of ISIS.

Trump also said that the US troops' mission would not go beyond the defeat of ISIS, and that other Arab nations would need to help with reconstruction, the Washington Post reported.

"Saudi Arabia is very interested in our decision, and I said, 'Well, you know, you want us to stay, maybe you're going to have to pay,'" Trump said in a speech on Tuesday.

Dan Coats told reporters Wednesday that top national security officials met Tuesday in an "all hands on deck" meeting and that "some decisions were made."

Trump said Tuesday that he expects to decide "very quickly" whether to remove US troops from war-torn Syria, saying their primary mission was to defeat ISIS and "we've almost completed that task."

Trump's comments conflict with views of his top military advisers, some of who spoke at a separate event in Washington about the need to stay in Iraq and Syria to finish off the militant group, which once controlled large swaths of territory in both countries.