Iran, Iraq Reiterate Support for Syrian Gov’t

Syria Vows to Retake U.S.-Occupied Areas

Date: 18 March 2019 - 21:36

News ID: ۶۴۴۱۹

DEMASCUS (Dispatches) -- The Syrian government said on Monday areas held by the U.S.-backed SDF militants would be brought back under its control through military force or the kind of "reconciliation agreements”.
"The only card remaining in the hands of the Americans and their allies is the SDF, and it will be dealt with through the two methods used by the Syrian state: national reconciliation or the liberation of the areas that they control through force,” Syrian Defense Minister General Ali Abdullah Ayoub said.
"The Americans must leave and will leave,” he said.
Large areas of Syria have been brought back under government control through "reconciliation agreements” that have typically been concluded after the military defeat of foreign-backed militants.
On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal said the U.S. plans to keep about 1,000 troops in Syria, despite an earlier announcement by President Donald Trump to completely withdraw them from the Arab country.
The reversal came after talks with Turkey as well as U.S.-backed Kurdish forces and European allies failed to produce an agreement on a "safe zone” in northeast Syria where terrorists are based in their last bastion, it said.
Citing American officials, the Journal on Sunday said the U.S. now plans to keep working with Kurdish militants in Syria, despite Turkish threats to launch an offensive against them. The proposal, the report said, may keep up to 1,000 U.S. forces spread across Syria.
Trump announced his decision to withdraw all 2,000 U.S. troops from northeastern Syria on December 19. The decision shocked allies and top U.S. officials who see the withdrawal a victory for the Syrian government.
The pullout was initially supposed to be completed within weeks, but it slowed down as opponents of the pullout frantically lobbied for troops to stay.
Last month, the White House announced that around 200 American troops would remain in Syria on a "peacekeeping” mission.
The U.S. denied the new report, saying plans for a residual force of around 200 troops had not changed.
"A claim reported this evening by a major U.S. newspaper that the U.S. military is developing plans to keep nearly 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria is factually incorrect,” General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
Iran and Syria on Monday demanded the United States withdraw its troops from Syria.
The Iranian and Syrian military chiefs were speaking after a meeting in Damascus that also included their Iraqi counterpart, who gave a political boost to President Bashar al-Assad by announcing the Syrian border would soon be reopened.
The U.S. has a military base at Tanf, near the Damascus-Baghdad highway and the Iraq and Syrian frontier.
Ayoub noted there was no doubt that U.S. military capabilities were "big and advanced" but said that the Syrian army's sources of strength included a "readiness for sacrifices" and it was "capable of taking action and having an effect".
"America and others will leave Syria as they have left other areas, because this presence is illegal and rejected."
The Iranian armed forces chief of staff, Major General Muhammad Hussein Baqeri, echoed the demand for the departure of foreign forces that had deployed in Syria without the approval of Damascus.
He said the Damascus meeting had "studied the means that should be taken to recover" territories still outside government hands, including the areas of U.S. deployment, adding the decision in this regard was up to the Syrian state.
Baqeri said the meeting confirmed that the countries were "united against terrorism" and coordinating at a high level.
Syria's border crossing with Iraq has been closed for years. The area was overrun by Daesh in 2014, which swore to eradicate modern nation states and meld them into its self-declared caliphate.
"God willing the coming days will witness the opening of the border crossing and the continuation of visits and trade between the two countries," Iraqi Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanimi said at a news conference broadcast by Syrian state television.