White House Has No Strategy on Syria: U.S. Media

Date: 05 September 2020 - 22:11

News ID: ۸۲۴۴۰

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – Newsweek has cited an unnamed senior U.S. intelligence official as saying that Washington currently does not have a clear strategy on Syria.
As the clock is ticking for the 3 November election, "both candidates vow to end the ‘endless wars’ waged by their predecessors”, Newsweek reports, referring to Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and incumbent President Donald Trump.
The intelligence official, in turn, claimed that the U.S. "doesn’t have a strategy [on Syria]” as the Pentagon continues to keep an American military mission in the Arab country in order to allegedly "ensure an enduring defeat” of Daesh, according to one of the latest press releases by the U.S. Department of Defense.
In October 2019, President Donald Trump, for his part, announced that the U.S. would be withdrawing its forces from Syria, but eventually backtracked, stating that a "small” American contingent would stay behind to "keep the oil” in the Middle Eastern country’s northeast.
Newsweek also cited Pentagon spokesperson Jessica McNulty as saying that the U.S.-led coalition does not coordinate or share intelligence with Russia in Syria.
"From time-to-time we are incidentally apprised of planned Russian strikes on ISIS [Daesh] targets west of the Euphrates River, as part of our routine de-confliction communications”, she pointed out.
The remarks came after Russia’s Defense Ministry stated in late August that Russian servicemen had done their best to avoid a collision with American troops deployed in Syria, in line with agreements designed to avoid confrontations between the two countries’ forces in the country.
The statement followed the U.S. National Security Council accusing Russian soldiers of being behind a collision with an American military vehicle in Syria, despite numerous videos from the scene showing Russian troops making several attempts to part ways with their U.S. counterparts in a safe manner.
Last month, Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari said U.S. President Trump is stealing his country’s oil, referring to a recent deal signed between the Kurdish-led so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and an American company.
Al-Jaafari told the UN Security Council that "the U.S. occupation forces, in full view of the United Nations and the international community, took a new step to plunder Syria’s natural resources, including Syrian oil and gas” by establishing the company Crescent Delta Energy.