National Security Advisor John Bolton assured Breitbart News radio listeners Thursday a U.S. presence will remain in Iraq to mitigate any resurgence of ISIS, who’s territorial caliphate has been essentially defeated.
Host Alex Marlow asked Bolton to provide clarity on the situation in Syria on Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM Patriot 125.
“We’re essentially at the point where the ISIS territorial caliphate is defeated. That was the president’s main objective,” said Bolton.
President Donald Trump broadcast the massive progress toward defeating ISIS when, on Wednesday, he stood on the White House South Lawn with two maps. One depicted in red the breadth of ISIS territory on election day in 2016, the other showed the current status of ISIS territory as not visible aside from one tiny red dot. He told the reporters that the final dot would be gone by night.
“We want to make sure that there’s not a resurgence of ISIS, and we’ll have a presence in Iraq going forward that will help ensure that,” Bolton added in the Thursday radio interview. “We’re always concerned, and rightly so I think, for the malign influence of Iran in Iraq and Syria and Lebanon and Yemen, so we’ll have a presence to deal with that as well.”
“What the president said about getting American forces down after the ISIS territorial caliphate is defeated is underway as we speak,” said Bolton.
Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook