State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said
on February 20 that Washington supported a united Syria maintaining its current
borders. "We're not changing it; we're not supporting the changing or
the addition of any kind of autonomous region," she said.
The statement, however, runs counter to the DoD actions for its
officials, who must have their own plans for Northern Syria. Late
last year, Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon confirmed that the U.S. Air Force was going to stay in Syria long enough to support the local Kurds and Syrian opposition partners as well as to
prevent an ISIS recovery.
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis even believes that the U.S. soldiers have every reason to be in Syria, on the basis of a U.N. Security Council resolution. However, Mattis seems to be the only
one to have ever seen the resolution, because the Syrian government
declared the U.S. military presence in the country illegal and has continually called on Washington to withdraw its forces.
Official reports say there are as many as 2,000 U.S. soldiers in Syria
now. They have repeatedly launched airstrikes on the Syrian army
positions, allegedly by mistake. In addition, the U.S. personnel train as
instructors both Syrian opposition fighters and Kurdish militia at its
military bases.
Moreover, Washington was ready to set up
a professional 30, 000-strong Kurdish army in Northern Syria, as if the Pentagon intended to gain a foothold and establish an autonomous
Kurdish quasi-state there. But this county has not yet fulfilled its promise, i.e. Kurdish
independence, even though ISIS is said to be defeated.
Many Syrian experts believe that Washington has different reasons to settle
down in Syria. They believe that the U.S. is continuing its confrontations against the
official government in Damascus and its allies Iran and Russia as well
as protecting its own geopolitical interests in the region, in
particular, which are overall control of oil and gas fields won back by the Kurds from ISIS.
should reconsider any further cooperation with Washington, which has
exploited them many times and returned nothing. Maybe it is high
time to start negotiations with the Syrian government and kick out the
U.S. troops occupying the Kurdish regions and Eastern Syria.
1
1
1
