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Trump
Does 180 Shift On Syria: Regime Change Back On The Table
6
September, 2018
Will
the war in Syria never end? Will the international proxy war and
stand-off between Russia, the United States, Iran, and Israel simply
continue to drift on, fueling Syria's fires for yet more years to
come? It appears so according to an exclusive Washington
Post report
which says that President
Trump has expressed a desire for complete 180 policy shift on
Syria.
Only
months ago the president expressed a desire "to get out" and
pull the over 2,000 publicly acknowledged American military
personnel from the country; but now, the new report
finds, Trump
has approved "an
indefinite military and diplomatic effort in Syria".
The
radical departure from Trump's prior outspokenness against
militarily pursuing Syrian regime change, both on the campaign trail
and during
his first year in
the White House, reportedly
involves "a
new strategy for an indefinitely extended military, diplomatic and
economic effort there, according to senior State Department
officials".
This
even though one of the Pentagon's main justifications for being on
Syrian soil in the first place — the
destruction of ISIS — has
already essentially happened as the terror group now holds no
significant territory and has been driven completely underground.
But
most worrisome about the Post report
is that sources said to be close to White House policy planning on
Syria suggest that Trump
has made a commitment to pursuing regime change as a final goal.
Crucially,
the report describes that "the administration has redefined its
goals to include the exit of all Iranian military and proxy forces
from Syria, and establishment
of a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and
the international community."
Of
course, there's the glaringly obvious issue of the fact that the
most powerful top competing "alternatives" to the
current government in Damascus include groups like Hay'at
Tahrir al-Sham,
which currently holds Idlib and is under direct allegiance to
al-Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri (as
recently confirmed in the
US State Department's own words).
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don’t let that happen!
The
shift stems from the White House's re-prioritizing
the long held US desire for the complete removal of Iranian forces
from Syria.
There's reportedly increased frustration that Russia is not actually
interested in seeing Iran withdraw, despite prior pledges as part of
US-Russia largely back channel diplomacy on Syria.
However,
the Post report
quotes a top Pompeo-appointed official, James Jeffrey, who is
currently "representative for Syria engagement" at the
State Department, to
say that U.S.
policy is not that “Assad must go” but
that immense pressure will be brought to bear, and in
terms of future US troop exit, “we are not in a hurry”.
“The
new policy is we’re no longer pulling out by the end of the year,”
Jeffrey said while noting the mission would largely shirt ensuring
Iranian departure. He
also indicated to that Trump is likely "on board" on
signing off on "a more active approach" should there be
direct confrontation with either Iran or Russia.
It
goes without saying that such a significant policy shift makes
the possibilities of just such a confrontation — or
perhaps "provocation" — over
Idlib all the more dangerous considering it now appears
Trump may
now be looking for an excuse to act,
which would provide the
usual convenient distraction from problems at home.
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