Europe must take IS prisoners or they’ll be freed: Trump

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump demanded that European nations take back their citizens who joined IS and were captured by US-allied forces in Syria and Iraq, warning the prisoners would otherwise be released.
“Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing,” Trump said in a subsequent tweet, adding that the US is “pulling back” once it can claim a “100% Caliphate victory.”
Trump has frequently harangued US allies for what he considers their inadequate contribution to NATO and other mutual defense arrangements. His abrupt announcement in December that he would withdraw US forces from Syria, following a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, rattled allies led by France, where President Emmanuel Macron again wondered about the US commitment to NATO.
US officials have estimated there are about 800 prisoners from four dozen countries at a series of Kurdish-run prisons and holding facilities across northern Syria. Kurdish officials have estimated the number of family members of captured fighters may top 4,000.
As Trump seeks to withdraw the US military from Syria, there’s concern that the Kurds —facing the threat of a Turkish attack in the absence of their American allies— may be unable or unwilling to hold the prisoners. That risks IS fighters being released to again take up arms. Another potential fate for the militant captives is that they end up in the custody of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. The US preference has been for countries that the IS fighters originally came from to take responsibility for them. But most foreign governments have been reluctant to do so for fear of radicalizing cellmates or straining their resources.
The US is considering the transfer of some of the most hardened fighters to the American military camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the alleged perpetrators of the September 11 attacks are still held. Trump did not mention that possibility in his Saturday night tweets.

US appeal for Nato personnel in Syria brushed off by Spain
Bloomberg

A US appeal for Nato allies to fill the void left by its imminent withdrawal from Syria was dismissed by Spain’s foreign minister, still bristling at Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to bring his troops home.
Vice President Mike Pence told reporters at the Munich Security Conference that the US is asking Nato members and other partners to provide “the resources and the support and the personnel” required to prevent a resurgence of IS once US operations conclude.
“Requests between countries aren’t made in press releases or conference comments,” Spain’s Josep Borrell said at a briefing in Munich on Saturday. “Spain and the majority of countries aren’t prepared to step in for the US after a withdrawal that was decided in a unilateral way, by surprise.”