It's time for peace, stability in Syria: China Daily editorial

Washington's decisions regarding the Middle East have a tendency to leave chaos and destruction in their wake, as they are usually both self-serving and shortsighted. It is to be hoped the latest proves to be an exception.

Although a complete withdrawal from Syria has been his long-stated mission, it still came as a surprise when US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he is pulling all US troops out of the country. He had just broadened the US objectives in Syria from fighting the Islamic State group to wiping out all proxy forces in the country earlier this year.

And although the United States now only has about 2,000 troops in Syria mainly on a train-and-advise mission to support local forces fighting the Islamic State group, their withdrawal will still have geopolitical significance.

The decision, which overtly at least is based on the conviction that the IS group has been defeated in the country, ignores the assessments of his own experts warning that is not the case.

Just two weeks ago General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there was still a long way to go to prevent a resurgence of the IS and stabilize the country.

The very fact that military action against the extremist group was needed is a lesson to be heeded. Whether the US had a solid reason to launch its invasion of Iraq aside, its hasty withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 left a security vacuum that was exploited by terrorist groups, most successfully by the IS group.

Iraq is still mired in security woes since the premature US pullout and it is to be hoped that the US in withdrawing will not complicate the situation in Syria by encouraging others to act on its behalf.

Compared with 2014 when the US, leading an international coalition, started to launch airstrikes against IS targets in Syria, the situation in Syria has dramatically changed.

Syrian government troops, backed by Russia and Iran, have regained most of the territories seized by IS terrorists this year. With the US signaling it has less interest in the situation in Syria, there may be a greater chance of a political solution to end Syria's seven-year crisis.

The international community should step up efforts to push for peace and national reconciliation.

Meanwhile, the US withdrawal from Syria should not be the end to the multilateral efforts to counter terrorism both in Syria and elsewhere. Those efforts should never stop.