WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – Turkish media disclosed that the military spending draft bill, which includes the budget of the U.S. Department of Defence, witnessed $18,368 million worth of cuts from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militant allocations.
Turkey’s Anadolu Agency noted that the U.S. House of Representatives passed the national defence authorization bill, with the support of a majority of the Republican and Democratic parties by 350 to 80 votes. It was referred to the Senate for a vote, with an estimated budget of $858 billion.
It added that the 4,000-page bill, through which the House of Representatives approved $487,513,000 out of the $541,692,000 requested to be granted to U.S. partners, including the SDF.
According to the news agency, they considered that $35.8 million out of the $358.15 million requested for Iraq were unjustified, while the amount of $322.2 million was found appropriate to be granted to Iraq.
Anadolu Agency noted that $18.368 million out of the $183.677 requested for the SDF is not justified.
Meanwhile, $165.309 has been approved for activities, including the U.S. military’s cooperation with the SDF.
For years, United States policy has relied on collaborating with Kurdish militants in northern Syria with a goal of maintaining some leverage over the future of the conflict.
In 2019, Kurdish militants announced a new deal with the government in Damascus, as Turkish troops moved deeper into their territory and former U.S. president Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of the American military from northern Syria.
The Kurds’ deal with Damascus paved the way for government forces to return to the country’s northeast for the first time in years to try to repel a Turkish invasion.
Washington’s policy, however, has been keeping Syrian forces out of the territory in order to keep pressure on President Bashar al-Assad.
In other words, the U.S. uses both Turkey and Kurdish militants to maintain its occupation of northern Syria, which explains why it keeps arming the Kurds all the time and green-lights a Turkish invasion at another.