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US
troop pullout from Syria conditional on Turkey's security guarantees
for Kurds - Bolton
RT,
6
January, 2019
US
forces will not leave Syria until Turkey guarantees the safety of
US-backed Kurdish militias, National Security Advisor John Bolton has
said, as cited by AP. He added that there was no timetable for a US
withdrawal.
According
to Bolton, US President Donald Trump told him that he would “not
allow Turkey to kill the Kurds.”
“We
don’t think the Turks ought to undertake military action that’s
not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a
minimum, so they don’t endanger our troops but also so that they
meet the president’s requirement that the Syrian opposition forces
that have fought with us are not endangered,” he
said.
Ankara
ridicules Pompeo’s ‘lack of knowledge’ after US vows to
protect Syrian Kurds from ‘slaughter’
“The
timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to
implement,” he
noted.
Bolton’s
statements provoked a critical response from Ankara. It
is “irrational” to
claim that Turkey targets Kurds in its operations, the Turkish
president’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said, adding that the Turkish
military campaign is aimed against Islamic State (IS, formerly
ISIS/ISIL) as well as against the Kurdish YPG and PKK groups, which
Ankara sees as terrorists.
Turkey’s
goal is to “save
the Kurds” from
persecution by these “terrorist
organizations,” Kalin
said, and that any claim that these groups might represent the
Kurdish people was showing “disrespect
to our Kurdish brothers.” He
also made it clear that Ankara is not intending to stop its military
campaign as he said that “Turkey
will continue its efforts with determination.”
Bolton
made his comments while on a visit to Jerusalem, where he is meeting
with Israeli officials to explain Donald Trump’s sudden
announcement last month that American forces stationed in Syria would
be coming home.
Trump
had previously stated that the US’ sole mission in Syria – the
defeat of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) – had been completed.
Bolton’s statement appears to add a new condition before
withdrawing: receiving assurances from Ankara that US-backed Kurdish
militias in northern Syria will not face an assault from Turkish
forces.
Although
Trump vowed to bring US troops home as soon as possible, bitter
disagreements between Washington and Ankara over the status of the
Kurdish militias will likely bring the withdrawal to a halt. Turkey
has labeled the Kurdish YPG – which receives support from the
Pentagon – as a terrorist group.
Bolton
will travel to Turkey on Monday, where he is expected to lay out
Washington’s demands to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On
Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that “the
importance of ensuring that the Turks don’t slaughter the
Kurds” was “still
part of the American mission” in
Syria. His comment was condemned by Ankara, which creatively argued
that Pompeo was comparing all Kurds to terrorists.
Trump
Lied Again: US Not Pulling Out Of Syria
4
January, 2019
FARS
The
US Army forwarded a new convoy of military equipment to regions that
are under the control of the Washington-backed forces in Hasaka
province on Tuesday after controversial statements by the White House
about a pullout from Syria.
The
US army dispatched a new convoy, including several trucks loaded with
military and logistic equipment, to al-Shadadi base in Southern
Hasaka via Simalka border-crossing at Iraq-Syria border.
In
the meantime, a field source disclosed that a sum of 20 US military
trucks entered Ein Issa base in Northern Raqqa on Sunday, adding that
the trucks were handed over to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF).
The
US is trying to continue providing the SDF with arms and ammunition
after the country’s decision to pull forces out of the war-hit
country.
Meanwhile,
US Senator Lindsey Graham has called on Trump to devaluate his
decision over withdrawal from Syria.
The
militant-affiliated Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR)
reported on Sunday that a long convoy of almost 200 US army trucks,
carrying weapons, munitions and logistical equipment, left the US
bases in Iraq on Saturday and arrived in coalition bases in Raqqa,
Manbij and Ein Issa in Northeastern Syria.
In
the meantime, the Kurdish militia reported that the trucks arrived in
the town of Amouda and left then for the US-run bases in Northeastern
Syria, adding that the arms and ammunition cargo is to be delivered
to the SDF.
The
convoy arrived after the US military decided to withdraw from Syria
but leave the SDF armed in the region.
The
White House plan to withdraw 2,000 American troops from Syria has
been put on hold, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a critic of
President Donald Trump’s recent Syria policy, said, adding that the
president has agreed to reevaluate his policy.
Graham
suggested Sunday Trump now better understands the stakes in Syria and
has agreed to reevaluate, for now, his plans to immediately withdraw
all US troops from the war-torn country.
After
a lunch with Trump, Graham said outside the White House that talks
about removing military personnel from the country are in a “pause
situation”, adding that, still, Trump remains committed to bringing
American soldiers and women home, even as he continues to weigh the
greater regional dynamics.
“We
talked about Syria and he told me some things I didn’t know that
made me feel a lot better about where we’re headed in Syria,”
Graham told reporters.
“I
think we’re slowing things down in a smart way,” the Republican
senator told reporters, stating that “but the goal has always been
the same. To be able to leave Syria and make sure ISIS (ISIL or
Daesh) never comes back”.
Graham
announced that Trump was “thinking long and hard about Syria and
how to withdraw the forces” after ensuring that Daesh is destroyed,
that Washington-allied Kurdish fighers are protected and that “Iran
doesn’t become the big winner of our leaving”.
When
Trump tweeted that “we have defeated” Daesh in Syria, several
military and security experts stressed that he was overstating the
case, and warned against a hasty withdrawal.
Speaking
to CNN after his appearance in the White House driveway, Graham said
he didn’t mean to suggest that Trump is pausing troop withdrawal
altogether.
“He
has not reversed his decision” to withdraw troops from the Middle
Eastern country, Graham stated, adding that “the pause is to assess
the effects of the conditions on the ground”.
The
White House did not clarify whether Trump had come to a new
determination about the Syria withdrawal plans, which drew widespread
criticism when they were first announced earlier this month.
Graham,
who has emerged as one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill,
had criticized him on the decision to withdraw troops, warning that
Daesh is not fully defeated and that US adversaries like Russia would
benefit from the choice. In the wake of the announcement, Graham
issued a scathing statement in which he denounced the decision as “a
Barack Obama-like mistake made by the Trump Administration”.
Trump’s
decision to pull the troops out of Syria has been appalling not just
to the US allies, including in the Middle East, but also to the
members of the US Congress. Some influential senators of both parties
have opposed Trump’s policy. Graham and many other Republican and
Democratic lawmakers have warned that pulling out of Syria would pose
jeopardize the region with instability.
But,
Trump defended his decision to withdraw all American military forces
from Syria amid a widespread backlash from lawmakers across the isle.
Trump
has claimed that US’ mission in Syria – the defeat of Daesh –
was complete, and that the American military would begin an immediate
withdrawal from the country, criticizing personnel from his national
security team that resigned.
The
US leader stated that his decision was “no surprise” and that it
was time for American troops to “come home and rebuild”, claiming
that the United States had initially planned to deploy their force to
Syria for three months, but eventually the American troops stayed
there several years.
Brett
McGurk announced his resignation last Saturday, following in the
footsteps of Defense Secretary James Mattis who announced his own
resignation on Thursday. Both men are said to have had differences
with Trump over his plan to withdraw US forces stationed in Syria.
American
officials have been sending mixed signals over Washington’s Syria
policy since Trump took office in 2017.
In
late March, Trump stated that the US would be “coming out of Syria
very soon” and letting “other people take care of it now”,
which went against previously-outlined plans by the Pentagon and the
State Department to keep troops in Syria to “support our partners”,
“prevent the return of terrorist groups” and transition to a
“post-(Bashar) Assad leadership”.
But
days later, Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced that the US
would not pull its troops out of Syria until its goals were
accomplished there.
Also
in mid-April, the White House said Trump wanted to bring troops back
from Syria as soon as possible, but not before their goals were
fulfilled, as Washington had some 2,000 troops and a number of
military contractors acting in the war-torn country.
In
early May, in one of the strongest signs a full US withdrawal was
unlikely anytime soon, Mattis said Washington and its allies would
not want to pull troops out of Syria before diplomats won peace.
White
House National Security Adviser John Bolton said in late September
that the US would keep a military presence in Syria until Iran
withdrew its forces.
Syria
has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The
US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are
claimed to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without
any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN
mandate.
_________
FARS
_________
FARS
The
US Army has dispatched more arms and ammunition to the regions under
the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Southern Hasaka,
a Kurdish media outlet reported on Friday.
The
Arabic-language website of Xeber 24 reported that the US has
dispatched a new convoy of trucks loaded with arms, ammunition and
logistic equipment to the US-led coalition forces’ joint bases with
the SDF in the town of al-Shadadi in Southern Hasaka.
It
further said that a US military plane has transferred a large volume
of weapons and military hardware to a US-run base in Kharab Ashak
region in the town of Ein al-Arab (Kobani) in Northeastern Aleppo.
The
US army has continued dispatching more convoys to Syria despite the
US president’s decision for withdrawal of forces from the war-hit
country.
The
militant-affiliated Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR)
reported on Sunday that a long convoy of almost 200 US army trucks,
carrying weapons, munitions and logistical equipment, left the US
bases in Iraq on Saturday and arrived in coalition bases in Raqqa,
Manbij and Ein Issa in Northeastern Syria.
In
the meantime, the Kurdish militia reported that the trucks arrived in
the town of Amouda and left then for the US-run bases in Northeastern
Syria, adding that the arms and ammunition cargo is to be delivered
to the SDF.
The
convoy arrived after the US military decided to withdraw from Syria
but leave the SDF armed in the region.
__________
FARS
Eleven
members of a family were killed in the US-led coalition airstrikes in
Southeastern Deir Ezzur, local sources reported on Friday.
A
sum of 11 members of a family were killed in a fresh round of air
raids on residential areas in the small town of al-Shafa’ah in
Southeastern Deir Ezzur.
Local
sources said in November that the US warplanes carried out several
combat sorties over the small towns of Hajin and al-Shafa’ah in
Southeastern Deir Ezzur, adding that at least 33 civilians, mostly
women and children were killed and tens more were wounded in the
attack that also destroyed a number of residential units.
The
sources further said that death toll will possibly rise as the
warplanes continue attacking and taking out the injured from under
the debris of ruined buildings is being done slowly.
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