Trump administration wants Egypt to send troops to Syria as part of an Arab military force that would cover America’s withdrawal after defeat of the Daeshbags, the Wall Street Journal reports in an exclusive citing senior US officials. The troops would be deployed in the northeastern part of the country, the story says, and US President Donald Trump’s new national security advisor has recently called acting intelligence chief Abbas Kamel “to see if Cairo would contribute to the effort.” Trump himself appears to be pushing the drive to have troops from the Arab world replace US soldiers in Syria, and the administration has asked Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar for financial backing of the Arab force.

Egypt is at center stage of the plan in the usual formula of “others send [funds], Egypt sends soldiers,” but the WSJ notes at length: “Egypt’s willingness to support a new effort in Syria is far from clear. With one of the largest armies in the Middle East, Egypt is preoccupied with a fight against the local branch of Islamic State in the Sinai Peninsula and with securing the country’s vast desert border with Libya, which is ruled by a patchwork of militias. Egypt rarely has deployed troops abroad since the country sent more than 30,000 soldiers to join the American-led coalition fighting Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, and its government sometimes has made statements supporting the authorities in Damascus, though it says it hasn’t taken sides in the conflict. If Egypt didn’t want to send troops, it could help in other ways, such as by training Syrian fighters outside of their country and with logistics, some experts suggest.”