It is being widely reported that the Trump administration is going to put an end to a covert CIA program in Syria that began back in 2013 and aims at training and providing weapons to so called moderate Syrian rebels. Authorized by President Barack Obama, the secret Timber Sycamore weapons supply, and training initiative has served as the backbone of Washington’s strategy to topple the Syrian President Bashar Assad. However, both the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have declined to comments on the issue. The reports suggest that according to two U.S. officials, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, the CIA program has so far been proven as not effective.

President Trump’s decision to end the CIA program was reportedly taken in consultation with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster ahead of his meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Hamburg earlier this month. During that meeting, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Trump and Putin reached a ceasefire agreement for southwest Syria. However, the Reuters report notes that the US will continue to support select Syrian rebel groups with air strikes and guidance as part of a separate effort.

The decision to pull out of such programs could play out in the hands of President Trump’s critics especially when the Russian President Vladimir Putin has always warned against arming the so-called moderate rebel groups in Syria, pointing out that weapons supplied to them often fall into the hands of jihadist groups such as Jabhat al Nusra and Islamic State.