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President Trump, who said just five months ago that he wanted to "get out" of Syria and bring American troops home, has accepted a new strategy that extends indefinitely the military effort and launches a major diplomatic effort to achieve US goals. to senior officials of the State Department.
Although the military campaign against ISIS was almost completed, the administration redefined its objectives to include the exit of all Iranian military forces and Syrian surrogate forces and the establishment of a stable and unofficial government. threatening for all Syrians and the international community.
Much of the motivation for change, officials said, stems from growing doubts as to whether Russia, which, according to Trump, could be a partner, is capable and eager to help eject the country. ;Iran. Russia and Iran were together the main allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to annihilate efforts by national rebels for years to overthrow the Syrian leader.
"The new policy is that we are no longer retiring by the end of the year," said James Jeffrey, a senior foreign service official who was appointed last month as Secretary of the Secretary of State. State Mike Pompeo. the troops serve in Syria, virtually all of them devoted to the war against the Islamic State in the eastern third of the country.
Jeffrey said US forces should stay in the country to ensure an Iranian departure and the "enduring defeat" of the Islamic State.
"It means we are not in a hurry," he said. Asked if Trump had approved what he called "a more active approach," Jeffrey said, "I'm sure the president agrees with that."
Jeffrey refused to describe a new military mission. But he insisted that it would be a "major diplomatic initiative" at the United Nations and elsewhere, and the use of economic tools, including probably more sanctions against Iran and Russia. and the United States' refusal to fund reconstruction in Assad.
Syria controlled.
But the more activist policies he has described, and only in vague terms, could increase the likelihood of a direct confrontation with Iran, and potentially with Russia.
Jeffrey's description of a much broader role in the United States follows years of criticism from lawmakers and analysts that neither Trump nor his predecessor, Barack Obama, had a coherent strategy for Syria. Trump, like Obama, insisted that US interests were focused on defeating the Islamic state, and he resisted significant involvement in the civil war against Assad in the rest of the country.
Jeffrey and retired Colonel Joel Rayburn, who was transferred last month to the State Department of the National Security Council to become "special envoy for Syria", were led to try to create a coherent plan. Administration considers the mistakes of Iraq – where a brutal US withdrawal left the field open for Iran and for a resurgence of Sunni militants who gave birth to the Islamic state.
Pompeo for the first time said that Iran's withdrawal from Syria was one of Tehran's 12 US demands in a May speech to the Heritage Foundation.
US policy is not that "Assad has to leave," Jeffrey said. "Assad has no future, but it's not up to us to get rid of him." But he said he had a hard time thinking of Assad as a leader who could "not only respond to we but to the international community. As a person who "does not threaten his neighbors" or does not abuse his own citizens, "does not allow chemical weapons and provides no platform to Iran".
The first test of the expanded role of the administration in Syria could arrive earlier than planned in Idlib, in the north-west of the country.
The province is the last bastion of rebel control after seven years of civil war, during which Assad, with significant assistance from Russia and Iran, crushed opposition forces. His scorched earth tactics and, sometimes, his use of chemical weapons have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and driven millions of people from their homes.
Idlib has now become a crowded gathering place for 70,000 opposition fighters, with about 2 million Syrian civilians displaced from other combat zones, as well as activists and aid workers trying to help them.
Turkish military forces are also located in Idlib, where they have pushed Syrian Kurds off the Syrian-Turkish border. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who fears a new exodus of Syrian refugees, is scheduled to attend a summit in Tehran on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Assad said he was preparing a final offensive in Idlib, and that Russian fighter jets began bombing the area this week. Humanitarian organizations have warned against an unprecedented level of civil bloodbath, and Trump himself has threatened US retaliation if a total offensive is launched, especially with chemical weapons.
"If it's a massacre, the world will become very, very angry. And the United States will also get angry, "Trump said Wednesday. Pompeo, said Jeffrey, conveyed the same message by telephone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as did the White House's national security advisor, John Bolton, during a recent meeting with his counterpart Russian.
Russia, which has reinforced its naval and other forces in the region in recent weeks, has accused the United States of preparing to make a chemical attack to justify military intervention. He says his operations in Idlib target up to 14,000 al-Qaeda-related fighters.
While the United States agrees that these forces must be eliminated, they reject "the idea that we must go there. . . to clean the terrorists, most people are fighting. . . They are not terrorists, but people who are waging a civil war against a brutal dictator, "Jeffrey said. Instead, the United States has called for a cooperative approach with other external actors.
"We started using a new language," said Jeffrey, referring to earlier warnings against the use of chemical weapons. Now, he said, the United States will not tolerate "an attack. Period."
"Any offensive is reprehensible to us as an imprudent escalation," he said. "You add to that, if you use chemical weapons, create refugee flows or attack innocent civilians," and "the consequences are that we will change positions and use all our tools to make it clear that we will find ways to achieve our goals that depend less on the goodwill of the Russians. "
Trump twice cleared US air strikes and missiles against Syrian government targets as a punishment for the use of chemical weapons.
Jeffrey asked, "We have repeatedly asked for permission to operate," and "it's a way to respond."
"In some ways, we are potentially entering a new phase, where forces from different countries are facing each other," rather than pursuing their separate goals, he said, listing Russia, the United States, Iran, Turkey and Israel. conducted his own air strikes against forces related to Iran inside Syria.
"Now they have all done their first job." "But no one is happy with the situation in Syria."
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