US top general says withdrawal from Syria may begin in weeks

The United States is likely just weeks away from starting the withdrawal of ground troops from Syria ordered by President Donald Trump, the top U.S. commander overseeing American forces in the Middle East said on Sunday.

U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, cautioned that the exact timing would depend on the situation in Syria, where U.S.-backed fighters have launched a final assault against Islamic State enclaves near the Iraqi border.

Votel also said that he believed troop levels in Iraq would remain broadly steady.

“We don’t want to keep people on the ground that we don’t need and (who) don’t have a valid mission,” he explained.

In December, Trump unexpectedly announced that he was immediately withdrawing troops from Syria, a move that received backlash from fellow Republicans and caused Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy to the coalition to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq, to resign.

Trump had initially called for a 30-day timeframe to complete the pullout, but after meeting with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump agreed to delay completion of the withdrawal.

In announcing the withdrawal from Syria, Trump cited the defeat of ISIS, which overran large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" in the land it controlled.

Trump said several days ago that officials would soon announce that “100 percent” of the ISIS caliphate had been liberated.

The U.S. military has already started withdrawing equipment from Syria. Asked whether the withdrawal of America’s more than 2,000 troops would begin in days or weeks, Votel said: “Probably weeks. But again, it will all be driven by the situation on the ground.”

“In terms of the withdrawal ... I think we’re right on track with where we wanted to be,” Votel told reporters travelling with him during a trip to the Middle East.

“Moving people is easier than moving equipment and so what we’re trying to do right now is again (to) kind of clear out those materials, that equipment, that we do not need.”

Hundreds of additional troops have been sent to Syria to facilitate the withdrawal.

U.S. officials have long estimated that the Syria pullout could take until sometime in March or April to execute fully, but have been reluctant to set an exact timeline given hard-to-predict battlefield conditions.

Votel did not speculate about when the drawdown would be completed. Thailand’s Election Commission will consider on Monday the surprise nomination of a Thai princess as a prime ministerial candidate in March elections after her brother, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, called it “inappropriate” and unconstitutional.

The commission will also consider a complaint seeking to ban the populist party that stunned the Southeast Asian nation by nominating Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, 67, for the prime ministership.

The March 24 election will be the first since a military coup in 2014.

Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932, but the royal family wields great influence and commands the devotion of millions of Thais.

Ubolratana’s shock nomination last week by the Thai Raksa Chart party, which is made up of supporters of ousted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, broke with a longstanding tradition of members of the royal family staying above politics.

She gave up her royal titles after marrying an American in the 1970s and has starred in soap operas and an action movie.

However, King Vajiralongkorn said in a statement read out on all Thai television stations within hours of her candidacy being announced that it was “inappropriate” for members of the royal family to enter politics.

The dramatic events of the past three days have put Thais on edge. Riot police units were on high alert in Pichit province, north of Bangkok, where the princess was due to visit later this week, according to Matichon newspaper.

The hashtag #coup was trending on Thai-language Twitter on Monday and a document also circulated online claiming that the junta had sacked commanders in the army, navy and air force.

The government’s assistant spokeswoman, Colonel Taksada Sangkhachan, said the document was fake and the government had filed a report with police.

The Election Commission has until Friday to rule on Ubolratana’s candidacy. Its members are unlikely to disregard the wishes of the king who, while a constitutional monarch, is considered semi-divine in Thai society.

A pro-royal activist said on Sunday he would file a petition to disqualify the Thai Raksa Chart party.

“The royal announcement made it clear that the party violated electoral law,” Srisuwan Janya, secretary-general of the Association for the Protection of the Constitution, told Reuters.

Thai Raksa Chart’s Executive Chairman Chaturon Chaisaeng declined to comment on Sunday on the request to disband the party. The party said in a statement it would “move forward into the election arena to solve problems for the country”.

Electoral law forbids parties from using the monarchy in campaigns.

Thai Raksa Chart is one of several pro-Thaksin parties contesting the election.

The junta leader, Prayuth Chan-Ocha, is also running for the prime ministership as the candidate of a pro-military party. Prayuth was the Thai army chief in 2014 and led the coup that ousted a government led by Thaksin’s sister.

Parties loyal to Thaksin, a former telecommunications tycoon, have defeated pro-establishment parties to win every election since 2001. Each of their governments has been removed by court rulings or coups since 2006.

The gambit to nominate a member of the royal family could backfire on Thai Raksa Chart, said Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the faculty of political science at Ubon Ratchathani University.

“Things are now more unpredictable,” Titipol told Reuters.

Dissolving the party could give more seats to anti-Thaksin affiliated parties, he said, although there are other parties loyal to the ex-premier contesting the election.

Thaksin, ousted in a coup in 2006, lives in self-imposed exile after being convicted in absentia by a Thai court on corruption charges he denies.