Wall Street Journal: Washington faces a major crisis in Syria
The main European allies of the United States haven’t responded to their demand to confirm their commitment until Friday to the new US plan on Syria, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The newspaper quoted officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump as saying that Washington’s allies on the continent didn’t comply until the expiration of the deadline by Washington to send troops to the north-east of Syria to “ensure stability” in the region.
Officials said Washington planned to hold consultations with senior military and political leaders of its European allies next week, expressing confidence that the Europeans would be part of a “stabilization campaign” in Syria.
Officials in Britain, France and Germany, major allies of Washington on the continent, declined to comment on the issue.
Other European officials said they had not yet been informed of any specific US plans to ensure security in eastern Syria after a “crackdown” there.
The newspaper said that this reflects the difficulties faced by the Trump administration in preparing a new plan for the area under the control of the United States and its regional and international allies, after the decision of the White House last December to withdraw US troops from Syria.
Although Washington has retreated from its original plans and agreed to keep hundreds of its troops in Syria, the United States is trying to draw up a plan based on consensus with European allies, the Kurdish-majority Kurdish forces and Turkey, The backbone of these forces) is a terrorist organization.
The Trump administration’s need for a new plan has increased after senior Pentagon officials revealed on Friday that there were about 5,000 ISIS members held by the Syria Democratic Forces, about 20 percent of them are foreign militants and others from Syria and Iraq.
The Kurdish forces are not capable of holding this large number of armed prisoners forever and need the support of the international coalition led by Washington in this matter, especially as the number of these ISIS arrested is expected to rise with the continuation of the battle to liberate the village of Al Baghouz.
The Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday that the Trump administration had asked eight European allies, including France, Britain and Turkey, to confirm their commitment to the US plan to “stabilize the situation in the north of Syria”.
For their part, European officials indicated that their countries began military action in Syria with the United States in 2015, with the realization that all troops will withdraw from the country at the same time, according to the formula “we entered together and we will pull together”, and the original plan was to keep troops in the country for a period of “stability” to train local forces.
