NY Post:

President Trump canceled the CIA’s secret program to arm and train Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad — a move critics called a gift to Russia, a new report said Wednesday.

“This is a momentous decision. Putin won in Syria,” a US official who supported the program told the Washington Post.

The program to arm moderate Syrian rebels began under the Obama administration in 2013 and was continued under Trump until now.

Officials told the paper that phasing out the covert program was a way to improve relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, who strongly opposed the effort.

The officials said the president made the call after an Oval Office sitdown with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster ahead of Trump’s meeting with Putin at the G20 in Germany on July 7.

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