Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Mulroy told Kurdistan 24's news outlet that US ground troops expect to be in Syria for "the long haul," working with a "very capable partner" in the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Mulroy argued that the US is "not in a bad situation" in Syria, because the territory the US and SDF hold contains "a lot of the oil resources" in Syria, and that the US troops will stay right there with the resources.

The comments come amid growing concerns that Turkey is going to lose patience with an open-ended US presence in Syria, and carry out their long-threatened invasion against SDF territory.

Arguing that the territory is a good situation for the US because of the oil is not usually the sort of thing US officials publicly say. Having done so is probably not going to change Turkey's position on Syria, nor its plans.