WASHINGTON: Brett McGurk, the special US envoy to the coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State group, has resigned, a US State Department official said on Saturday. His resignation, effective Dec 31, comes just after US President Donald Trump abruptly ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Syria as well as the announcement that Defence Secretary Jim Mattis was quitting, citing key disagreements with Trump.

Just last week McGurk, a Barack Obama appointee who Trump kept on, said “nobody is declaring a mission accomplished” in the battle against IS — just days before the president’s stunning announcement of victory against the IS.

Trump again on Saturday said “ISIS is largely defeated”. “When I became President, ISIS was going wild,” the president tweeted. “Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We’re coming home!”

McGurk reportedly said in his resignation letter that IS militants were in fact not defeated, and that prematurely withdrawing US troops could foster conditions allowing them to amass power in the region once more.

“It would be reckless if we were just to say, ‘Well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now,’” McGurk had told journalists earlier this month.

The 45-year-old top envoy was set to leave his position in February, but reportedly felt he could no longer continue in the job after Trump’s declaration.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2018