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AttemptedForeign Policy, Defense & Wars

We have to build safe zones over there [Syria]. And we have to take care of people. We have to get the Gulf states to pay for it. They have tremendous amounts of money. They're not doing much. And it's their territory.

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AttemptedFact-checker reviewConfidence: 70%

Trump pressed the idea early in his term: a January 29, 2017 White House readout records that King Salman of Saudi Arabia agreed to support safe zones in Syria and Yemen, and by August 2018 coalition contributions of roughly $300 million - including $100 million from Saudi Arabia and $50 million from the UAE - replaced U.S. stabilization funding in northeast Syria. But the United States never established the promised safe zones: a safe-zone directive was dropped from the January 2017 executive order on refugees, and the only zone so labeled (northern Syria, October 2019) was a Turkish-controlled buffer following Turkey's offensive rather than the Gulf-funded civilian havens promised. The effort was genuinely pursued, and Gulf money was obtained for related stabilization work, but the core deliverable did not materialize by the end of the term.

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