Pompeo: The United States will not participate in reconstruction until the withdrawal of Iranian forces and its supported forces from Syria
The United States is increasingly linking its strategy in Syria to its position on Iran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Wednesday that Washington would make no contribution to the reconstruction of Syria as long as there were Iranian or Iranian-backed forces in the country.
This position reflects for the first time clearly Washington’s new policy towards Syria, after indications were made in statements issued by a number of officials during the past weeks.
“Today, the conflict in Syria is at a turning point”, Pompeo said in a speech to the Jewish National Security Institute.
The regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has “strengthened his control” on the ground “thanks to Russia and Iran”, while the organization of the Islamic state and “although not yet fully eliminated, but it is weak”.
He explained that this “new situation requires a reassessment of America’s mission in Syria”, stressing that if the defeat of the Islamic state organization is the first goal, it is “not our sole goal”.
He said the administration of US President Donald Trump wanted a political and peaceful solution after seven years of conflict and wanted “Iranian or Iranian-backed forces to come out of Syria”.
The mission of the 2,000 American soldiers deployed in eastern Syria is limited to official justification for combating the organization of the Islamic state.
With the successive field defeats that have been orchestrated and the loss of his most prominent strongholds in Syria, President Donald Trump announced in spring that he intends to withdraw US troops from this country, which rejects long and costly foreign operations.
However, his military advisers, diplomats and Washington’s European allies convinced him later that it was too early to withdraw from Syria.
A diplomatic source said Trump was telling his international interlocutors that he was “staying behind Iran”.
According to the same source, Pompeo said that despite “legal difficulties” against the backdrop of the US Congress’s reservation when the administration unilaterally expands its motives behind its military intervention, the United States “will find a way to survive”.
“We will not leave Syria as long as there are Iranian forces outside the Iranian border, including the Iranian-linked groups and militias”, White House national security adviser John Bolton, known for his toughness on Iran, warned in September.
The US diplomat then softened the tone, and the Special Envoy of the Syrian file, James Jeffrey, explained that there were “several ways to be on the ground”, diplomatically or through allies.
It was clear, however, that the US presence was linked to Iran’s “destabilizing” influence in the region, according to Washington, and made Trump’s administration its first priority in the Middle East.
This was confirmed by Pompeo again Wednesday.
“We were clear: if Syria does not guarantee the full withdrawal of Iranian-backed forces, it will not get a dollar from the United States for reconstruction”, he said.
He considered that it depended primarily on Damascus, as Westerners doubt that the Russians alone have the means to push Iran out of Syria.
The conditions for Americans and Europeans to contribute to the massive reconstruction process in Syria have so far been limited to a political settlement of the conflict under the auspices of the United Nations, a mechanism that is now completely stalled.
“We have two pressure sheets in Syria”, he said, “our presence on the ground” and “that Damascus and Russia need international funds for reconstruction”.
With this new development, Washington intends to use these papers to pressure the Syrian regime, Russia and Iran at the same time.
