MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has announced that he planned to maintain a military base in Iraq since he seeks to quell discontent among Republicans over his decision to pull out US troops from Syria, Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, at his meeting with US troops in Iraq, Trump declared that the United States was not planning to withdraw its forces from the Middle Eastern country. On December 19, the US leader announced his decision to start pulling out American troops from Syria, stressing that the Islamic State terror group (outlawed in Russia) had been defeated and this was the only reason why the US forces had remained there under his presidency.

"Having stated, during a surprise visit to Iraq that he intended to keep a military base in that country as an advanced springboard for actions in Syria, US President Donald Trump is trying to have it both ways. On the one hand, he still wants to demonstrate the intention to abandon the role of global policeman with the subsequent mission where American blood is spilt for the sake of a country, about which most of them can’t find on a map. On the other hand, Trump certainly needs to quell discontent among the Republicans related to his decision on withdrawing US troops from Syria," Kosachev, who chairs the Russian Federation Council’s (upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on Facebook.