Responding to a question on the status of US troops present in Syria, the
US Defense Secretary, James Mattis, declared that his country had a UN
guarantee to chase out the Islamic Emirates (Daesh) from Syria.

And following this, he declared that US troops in Syria would not be
withdrawn until the Geneva Process was complete, the purpose being to avoid
Daesh from returning.

The constitutional government of the Syrian Arab Republic has repeatedly
denounced the illegal presence of US troops in Northern Syria and the
establishment of US forces on the Syrian-Iraqi border and in the South.

Q: You know, Assad says Iran and Russia were invited into his country, you were never invited in; you’re there illegally. What legal standing do you have to — to you know, be in Syria?

SEC. MATTIS: You know, the U.N. said that ISIS — basically we can go after ISIS. And we’re there to take them out. But that doesn’t mean we just walk away and let ISIS 2.0 pop back around? as if we’re surprised either. So we got to get the U.N.-brokered effort in Geneva to take this thing forward.

Source : “Hallway Press Gaggle by Secretary Mattis”, US Department of Defense, November 13, 2017.

Translation
Anoosha Boralessa