WASHINGTON
The United States is reassessing its relations with the new leadership in Damascus, weighing a strategic policy shift in Syria that includes significant troop reductions and renewed debate over sanctions.
Syria policy has once again taken center stage in Washington's Middle East agenda this week, as the Pentagon on April 18 confirmed plans to reduce its military footprint in the country following a flurry of media reports.
“Today the secretary of defense directed the consolidation of U.S. forces in Syria... to select locations," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, without specifying the sites where this would take place.
"This deliberate and conditions-based process will bring the U.S. footprint in Syria down to less than 1,000 U.S. forces in the coming months," he said.
"As this consolidation takes place... U.S. Central Command will remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants [of ISIL] in Syria," Parnell added, referring to the military command responsible for the region.
On April 18, U.S. forces reportedly withdrew from three small outposts in northeastern Syria, located in areas under the control of the PKK/YPG terrorist organization, moving troops and equipment to larger bases nearby.
The evacuated sites included Hadra and Fırat villages near the Hasakeh city center and near the Koniko and Omar oil fields in Deir ez-Zor province.
U.S. forces have maintained a presence in Syria for years as part of the international coalition against ISIL, which surged amid the chaos of the country’s civil war. American troops continue to back YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a partnership that has long drawn criticism from Ankara, which views YPG as the Syrian branch of PKK — a group Türkiye, the U.S. and the EU designate as a terrorist organization.
During Türkiye’s 2019 Operation Peace Spring against PKK/YPG elements in northern Syria, U.S. forces withdrew from several posts in the operation zone, consolidating around key oil and gas fields instead.
President Donald Trump consistently expressed skepticism about the U.S. presence in Syria.
Another key issue shaping U.S. Syria policy is the potential softening of sanctions following Bashar al-Assad’s fall in December 2024 and the rise of a new administration in Damascus.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on April 19 hosted Republican Congressman Cory Mills of Florida — the first visit by a U.S. lawmaker since Assad’s ouster.
Since arriving in Syria on an unofficial visit on April 18, Mills and Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana toured parts of Damascus.
American politicians were greeted in Damascus with banners reading “Make Syria Great Again.”
Stutzman told reporters that he saw that the people of Syria now have energy and optimism, adding that as the country's new government makes decisions, “it will be very helpful having the United States understand what the changes are here and that the sanctions lifted would be a huge economic boom.”
Any move to lift sanctions “would be President Trump’s decision,” he said.
“As a member of Congress, I can go back home and share with my colleagues, share with the president and others, and tell the story of the changes that are happening in Syria and we want to be here to support that,” Stutzman said.
“We would not want to see Syria fall back in the hands of another dictator.”
After the fall of Assad, the U.S. eased some restrictions on Syria to allow the entry of humanitarian aid. The U.S. Treasury issued a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.
“I think lifting the sanctions will be very beneficial and I understand why the people that I’m encountering and traveling with want the sanctions lifted,” Stutzman said.
US,
