{"id":30978,"date":"2018-07-19T17:57:11","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T17:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/19\/votel-no-syria-direction-yet-from-russia-summit\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:43:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:43:36","slug":"votel-no-syria-direction-yet-from-russia-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/07\/19\/votel-no-syria-direction-yet-from-russia-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Votel: No Syria direction yet from Russia summit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Any U.S. military component of a reported agreement on Syria struck between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin <\/a>would likely require congressional approval or a waiver, the head of U.S. Central Command said Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few details have come out of the private Trump-Putin Monday meeting, where only the two leaders and their interpreters were reported to be in the room. However, Russian ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov told Russian television Wednesday that \u201cimportant verbal agreements were made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In tweets Thursday, Trump said the meeting covered Syria, Ukraine, North Korea and a host of other issues where the U.S. military has vested interest<\/a> \u2014 however as of Thursday the Pentagon was still in the dark about what, if any, agreement specifics were set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have received no specific direction at this point,\u201d Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters in a teleconference Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump was scheduled to have lunch with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Thursday and meet later in the day with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the U.S. military, Syria and Ukraine are tightly interlinked, for it was Russia\u2019s invasion of Crimea in 2014 that led to Congress passing new laws to restrict interaction between U.S. and Russian forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\t