WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 30 nations fighting the Daesh group will gather in Washington on Nov 14 in a French-initiated meeting as the United States pulls troops from Syria, a US official said.
Ministers from nations in the coalition against the extremists will “look at the next steps to increase the coalition presence in northeast Syria,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for an urgent meeting of the coalition after US President Donald Trump told Turkey earlier this month that he withdrew some 1,000 troops from northeast Syria.
The US official cast the meeting as a way to seek more support from allies — a key priority for Trump, who often accuses US partners of being free-loaders.
“This is something President Trump has been working on, both to get troops on the ground, airplanes in the air and money flowing to stabilization in that area from our partners and allies who are in the coalition,” the official said.
The official noted pointedly that no European allies have stepped forward to send in troops to replace departing US forces.
The meeting announcement came after Trump on Sunday announced the killing of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an attack in Syria led by US Special Forces.
Trump’s withdrawal has nonetheless alarmed European allies fearful of a resurgence of the intensely violent group, especially as Kurdish fighters abandoned by the United States had been guarding Daesh prisoners.
The United States has said that more than 100 Daesh prisoners have escaped in the chaos, as the United States withdrew and Turkey launched an incursion against the Kurdish fighters, whom Ankara links to separatists at home.
The official said Trump, by announcing a withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria on Oct. 6, did not suggest that Washington would drop the fight against the jihadist group.
“There was never an idea that we would abandon the mission of going after Daesh … This is a major effort that is continuing,” the official said.
Trump has been softening his pullout plans for Syria after a backlash from Congress, including fellow Republicans, who say he enabled a long-threatened Turkish incursion on Oct. 9 against Kurdish forces in Syria who had been America’s top allies in the battle against Daesh since 2014.
Trump ordered the withdrawal because he was facing a “chaotic situation” the official said. “Then as the smoke cleared, we adjusted that a little bit to make clear that we were going to keep some forces on, to continue the mission.”
Turkey launched its cross-border offensive to drive the Kurdish YPG militia it sees as hostile out of northeastern Syria. Ankara halted the operation after the Kurdish forces pulled out of a designated area under a U.S.-brokered truce.
Amid fears that Daesh could stage a comeback, Trump said last week that a small number of troops would remain in the area of Syria “where they have the oil,” a reference to oilfields in the Kurdish-controlled region.
“The President is focused on oil because it is very important to keep that out of the hands of Daesh,” the U.S. official said on Monday. “We also don’t think it is a good thing for Iranians or the regime to have them.”
The official acknowledged, however, that some of the oil ends up in the hands of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russia and Iran in the more than eight-year-long Syrian war.
The death of Baghdadi fulfilled a top national security goal of the Trump administration and was welcomed by world leaders who cautioned that the fight against Daesh was not over. — NNN-AGENCIES
