New: In weeks before the Syria decision, national security adviser John Bolton instructed senior officials to meet directly with coalition partners and assure them the US is “staying in Syria until Iran is out of Syria,” two sources tell CNN. 1/

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) December 24, 2018

3/Decision comes at critical time in fight against ISIS, with US military & partners “in a Tora Bora situation” in N. Syria with ISIS cornered. US has reason to believe ISIS leader al-Baghdadi & senior cmdrs could be trapped in “a little pocket,” based in part on vigorous defense

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) December 24, 2018

5/More broadly, this official says the national security decision-making process in the administration has “basically stopped working…with decisions made on a whim on phone calls”

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) December 24, 2018

this is fine…