According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration has suspended its covert CIA policy program of support for Syrian rebel groups against the Assad regime.
The program was initially launched back in 2013 by the Obama Administration, in an aim to put pressure against Assad and the regime in Syria.
The US sought to support the rise of a 'moderate middle' in the conflict by sending the CIA to train rebel groups in secret bases in Jordan.
Since 2013, the conflict in Syria has risen in complexity, with Russia and Iran increasing their involvement in the country by backing Assad's regime, weakening rebel groups. As a result, the US program came under scrutiny for inefficiency, and was suspended officially as of Wednesday by the Trump administration.
Many experts predicted the move, saying that the recent ceasefire agreed to by Russia and the US was a sure signal towards the end of US backing of the rebels. The decision is also likely to be welcomed gladly by Putin and the Russians, with Putin having declared the program illegal back in 2015.
What does this tell us about power dynamics in Syria?
The move suggests two things. First, that the US' desire to remove Assad from power has changed, or their power to do so has reached a limit.
Second, the move is being seen as a signal of Trump's desire to work more closely with Putin and Russia in the region, a controversial move due to investigations into the Kremlin's interference into the 2016 US elections in which Trump rose to power. To date these investigations have not produced material evidence and have been accused of being politically motivated.
The future of the US in Syria
US involvement in Syria is now limited to the backing of Kurdish forces in the fight against the Islamic State.
This week reports came in of an increased US military presence in Kurdish areas, which now seems to have been a re-direction of forces from rebel-held areas to the Kurdistan region.
