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From WaPo
President Trump has decided to end the CIAs covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia, according to U.S. officials.
The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later.
Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trumps interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the anti-Assad program as an assault on its interests. The shuttering of the program is also an acknowledgment of Washingtons limited leverage and desire to remove Assad from power.
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After the Trump-Putin meeting, the United States and Russia announced an agreement to back a new cease-fire in southwest Syria, along the Jordanian border, where many of the CIA-backed rebels have long operated. Trump described the limited cease-fire deal as one of the benefits of a constructive working relationship with Moscow.
The move to end the secret program to arm the anti-Assad rebels was not a condition of the cease-fire negotiations, which were already well underway, said U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the secret program.
This is a momentous decision, said a current official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a covert program. Putin won in Syria.
The decision will not affect a separate Pentagon-led effort to work with U.S.-backed Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State. And the CIA-backed rebels were part of the larger moderate opposition.
Some analysts said the decision was likely to empower more radical groups inside Syria and damage the credibility of the United States.
We are falling into a Russian trap, said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, who focuses on the Syrian resistance. We are making the moderate resistance more and more vulnerable. . . . We are really cutting them off at the neck.
Others said it was recognition of Assads entrenched position in Syria.
Its probably a nod to reality, said Ilan Goldenberg, a former Obama administration official and director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.