Jim Jeffrey, US special envoy for Syria and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, said he was not personally consulted or advised in advance on the decision to pull US troops from northern Syria.
"I was not personally consulted,” Jeffrey said today at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
Asked by Republican Sen. Mitt Romney if he was “advised about the decision to withdraw all US troops following that Erdogan call,” Jeffrey said, "That specific decision, I was not in advance."
Jeffrey reiterated that the US had told Turkey not to proceed with the military offensive, saying the operation was not “inevitable.” He pushed back on questions about the withdrawal of US troops from northeastern Syria being tied to Turkey moving ahead with its military operation.
“Turkey has not really gained all that much from this as I said, but in the process has scrambled the entire northeast, undercut our efforts against ISIS and brought in the Russians and the Syrian regime forces in a way that is really tragic for everybody involved,” he said.
Jeffrey appeared to confirm that there are 14,000 to 18,000 ISIS fighters, who remain at-large, in Iraq and Syria despite claims of victory over ISIS.
Pressed by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin on war crimes, Jeffrey said that “Turkish-supported Syrian opposition forces who are under general Turkish command in at least one instance did carry out a war crime and we have reached out to Turkey to demand an explanation.”