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Kurdish lobby struggles to slow US pullout from Syria

An upstart Syrian Kurdish delegation urging the Donald Trump administration to slow the Pentagon pullout from Syria faces significant hurdles to get its message in front of a wary US administration.
Riad Darar and Ilham Ahmed co-chair's of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) are seen during the third meeting in Tabqa, Syria July16, 2018. REUTERS/Rodi Said - RC150A9F38B0

Reeling from President Donald Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of Syria, the political wing of the Pentagon-backed Kurdish group that has spent the past four years fighting the Islamic State started the public portion of their 13-day tour of Washington with a bang on Monday, greeting the commander in chief at Trump International Hotel.

It’s not clear how the delegation, led by Ilham Ahmed, happened upon the president. Trump told the group “I love the Kurds” and promised that the US allies are “not going to be killed” by Turkish forces, the Syrian Democratic Committee co-president recalled at a panel earlier this week. The Wall Street Journal reported that the president also said he loved the Turks, the sworn enemy of the group.

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