The remarks from the president come as his administration confronts escalating tensions across the Middle East and navigates new troop movements in the region.

Trump in recent days has sought to promote a temporary cease-fire agreement Vice President Mike Pence negotiated last week with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, aimed at halting the slaughter of U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters in Syria by Turkish forces.

Meanwhile, Trump’s directive to withdraw the last American service members from Syria has forced congressional lawmakers and Pentagon officials to reckon with the threat of a potential resurgence by Islamic State militants.

The more than 700 evacuated U.S. soldiers will be relocated to western Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Saturday, although new media reports indicate Trump is considering keeping a few hundred soldiers in northeastern Syria to counter advances by Syrian and Russian forces into the country's lucrative oil fields.

Esper also announced earlier this month that the administration would be deploying another wave of troops to Saudi Arabia to help protect the kingdom from Iran’s regime, despite Trump’s campaign trail pledge to halt U.S. involvement in “endless wars.”

The diplomatic relationship between Washington and the Islamic Republic has increasingly frayed since Trump’s decision last year to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 multinational nuclear pact, and the administration’s steady series of sanctions against Tehran have in part provoked acts of Iranian aggression around the Persian Gulf.