IMAGE: Zoe Garbarino / U.S. Army / Reuters
Washington allies have “unanimously” told the US that they won’t stay if the US pulls out its forces from Syria, according to multiple reports in US media.
Stars and Stripes newspaper covers the situation in the following manner:
“France and Britain are the only other countries with troops on the ground in the U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State.
Along with the United States, they have provided training, supplies, logistics and intelligence for the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-dominated group that has done most of the fighting. U.S., French and British forces also man heavy artillery and conduct the airstrikes that have been decisive against the militants.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said last week that he was mystified by Trump’s policy. On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said “there is no prospect of British forces replacing the Americans” in Syria.
European refusal to stay unless President Donald Trump reverses at least part of his troop withdrawal order is one of several factors that U.S. military officials, lawmakers and senior administration officials have said should make Trump think again.
Their concerns come as the administration has yet to reach an agreement with Turkey not to attack the SDF, which the nation says is a terrorist group. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the Turkish military, massed at the border, is prepared to move into northeastern Syria once the Americans leave.
One of the principal requests the administration has made of the allies, including Germany, which has no forces in Syria, is to form an “observer” force to patrol a 20-mile-wide “safe zone” on the Syrian side of the border, separating Turkey from the Syrian Kurds.
Officials in Ankara said Turkey’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar, and its military chief of staff will travel to Washington on Thursday to discuss Syria and other regional matters with acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.
The SDF has appealed for Western nations to keep a force of up to 1,500 in northeast Syria to coordinate air support and back its efforts to hold militants and other adversaries at bay. In anticipation of the departure of about 2,000 U.S. troops, the Kurds are negotiating with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia, his primary foreign backer along with Iran.”
Meanwhile, the US still claims that it is not going to give up its infleunce in northeastern Syria. Despite the formal defeat of ISIS in the Euphrates Valley, the SDF remains a useful tool of Washington foreign policy. According to the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance, Washington seeks to divide the country by setting up a quasi-state on the eastern bank fo the Euphrates.
On February 19, a senior adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Bouthaina Shaaban, commented on the idea of the creation of the US-backed “autonomy” within the country.
“Autonomy means the partition of Syria. We have no way to partition Syria,” she told Reuters on the sidelines of a Middle East conference in Moscow organized by the Valdai Discussion Club. “Syria is a country that is a melting pot for all people and all people are equal in front of Syrian law and in front of the Syrian constitution,” she added describing the Kurds “a precious and very important part of the Syrian people.”
blablablablablabla….vommit
Finaly Assad will have to give inn on democracy. Nobody can deny that needs to stand trail, but nobody has need for a power vacuum. So let the Syrian people decide: democracy is the way to reconciliation, and all pressure from Turks, shiit Soniet, mosslim brothers, Iran, US must be avoided in this voting.
Well, we have democracy here in the West and we are more divided then ever and we can’t seem to get rid of our leaders who are more interested in doing the bidding of big business and the US instead of their own electorates. And the less said about the US political class, in thrall to Israel, the better.
I’m not saying that autocracy is better, but the idea that democracy is the cure to every political illness is false. As long as the elites still manage to place themselves at the helm democracy will change little.
Yes, the leading democracies and powers of the so called “free world” are the biggest international outlaws, bullies and death dealers the world has ever seen, and it’s disgusting how they/we wrap our selves with flags of uncritical self-righteouness. It’s hypocrisy, not democracy. They/we have have ZERO moral authority and our leadership is bought, or gained at the point of a gun.
That is because in every political system an elite will form that will seek to consolidate its political power and wealth at the expense of the people they govern. And they will then justify that rule through the political system. Monarchies obviously produced an oligarchic elite and justified it through religion (appointed by God), but we see the same thing in theocratic Iran (carrying out the Will of God) and it happened in communist Russia (For the Greater Good). Why should democracies be any different?
Monarchy, republic, theocracy, communism, democracy, it doesn’t matter much, in the end its all oligarchy and how the ruling oligarchy justifies its rule to the masses. I said this 20 years ago before it became fashionable to talk about the elite and the 1%, and people called me bleak and cynical.
It is the best after all others clairly failed. 3 remarks: a Swiss orientated democracy does fulfil all the conditions. 2) comparred to the states in the islam melt pot it is clairly more peaceful over here. 3) think that muslims and their institutions are not ready for a democracy, they need a strong hand and harsh approach to function.
It took the West centuries to grow into their democracies, with lots of birthing pains and often setbacks. It didn’t appear magically overnight. To expect that to happen in the Arab world shows gross negligence in your own history.
On the flipside, while the West grew into its democracies its in no way certain that it will remain democratic, as every system balances on a knife’s edge. And the process that led to the rise of democracy can also cause it to reverse again. After all, Athenian democracy also disappeared and if history teaches us anything its that all political systems inevitable lead to oligarchy again. An elite will always form in every political system and then seek to consolidate its power and wealth at the expense of its fellow citizens.
So ? Because the history can reverse: – If you not tray to leave the cruel totalitarian surpression, it will never happen. – you should stay in the medieval bribal ideology of 630? Because maybe it goes wrong after all?
Because it can doesn’t mean it will. A slim chance of success is not a reason to throw the Middle East into chaos. And we have seen this time and time and time again. Maybe things go wrong has proven to be always go wrong. Overthrowing a brutal dictator does NOT lead to democracy happening, and why should it when those societies and people aren’t ready yet? When you impose democracy at gunpoint to a tribal religiously divided population with no prior experience of democracy, don’t be surprised when they vote along tribal and religious lines and impose harsh oppression on those who lost the elections. Or when religious fundamentalists come to power.
When confronted with a bad situation where emotions scream ‘DO SOMETHING!’ maybe the best response would be to do nothing. Neither support the dictator, nor help overthrow him. Because A: chances are you will make things worse, B: the West simply does not understand these societies at all, and C: you now become responsible, because you break, you now own it, and you have to fix things. Welcome to at least half a century of nation building!
Yup. And the Syrians will again (democratically) decide for Assad who, with Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah’s help has saved the country. Have you anything to say against their decision?
No , but let us keep them consigned from ore world, the Bospurus should be the border between structure and a chaotic totalitarian religious ideology. On the other side the border between Pakistan and India/China and downwarts there is nothing but the sea down South Africa. So let those tribal wildmen sort it out between equals.
BREAKING NEWS FROM HEZBOLLAH:::
Spokesman of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions) popular forces Jafar al-Hosseini disclosed that the US is planning to increase its military presence in Iraq by rising the number of soldiers and bases in the country. “The US has 31 military bases, including seven special bases for fighter jets and six bases for intelligence tasks,” al-Hosseini told the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen TV network. He also reiterated that the US has 34,000 soldiers, five logistics companies and 24 associate companies in Iraq. Al-Hosseini also reiterated that Kata’ib Hezbollah are constantly monitoring the US Army troops’ movements along the borders with Iraq, and said that according to the intel gained by Hezbollah Battalions, the deployment of the US troops in Iraq has taken place with the aim to implement a plan that will be implemented soon. He reiterated that the Americans will conduct military operations along Iraq-Syria border. In a relevant development in late December 2018, a senior Iraqi legislator leveled strong accusations against the US army, saying hundreds of ISIL terrorists have deployed at the US bases in the country. Kazzem al-Sayyadi, an independent lawmaker of the Iraqi parliament, told the Arabic-language al-Ma’aloumeh news website that over 1,000 ISIL militants are present at the US bases. “The US forces entered Iraq’s territories on a decision of their own and their number now amounts to 30,000. They supported the ISIL logistically during this period and now, over 1,000 ISIL members are present at the US military bases,” al-Sayyadi claimed. There have been frequent reports accusing the US army of cooperation with ISIL in Southeast Syria and Western Iraq, but the accusation leveled against the US military by the Iraqi lawmaker is the first formal statement made ever in this regard. The Iraqi forces have in the past few years found a huge volume of advanced US-made missiles and weapons in the ISIL hideouts in the country.
Those damn Europeans, what is with them not wanting to sow the seeds of their own destruction? Now Ankara has to send their military officials to the US to figure out how to outsmart the Russians/Iranians, as their fake animosity is not working. If Russia and Iran keep insisting on keeping Syria whole, they’ll ruin the whole show.
Glad to see im not alone in having spotted their “fake animosity” since day 1. Its so painfully obvious they’re with the zionists its unbelievable that people actually believe their crap.
yall such smart people.
Is that sarcasm or legit?
whaddaya think.
I think you’re a pointless imbecile
GTFO – all of you.
We go where you go America. If you leave we also leave. If you go to Venezuela we also go to Venezuela. Wherever you go America we will go in your butt.