Over the past week, US officials have increasingly spoken of a continuing US presence in eastern Syria, even after IS’ defeat.
On Thursday, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, David Satterfield, revealed to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the US had an alternate plan for Syria, in the event that the UN-sponsored talks in Geneva failed to produce an agreement.
In that case, Satterfield said, the US would remain in eastern Syria to provide an alternative political model within the country to Assad’s brutal rule and to counter “Iran and its ability to enhance its presence in Syria.”
Colonel Thomas F. Veale, a Public Affairs Officer for the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria told that coalition is working on “establishing and training” a new Syrian Border Security Force.
Spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon said: “This force is designed to establish security that supports the lasting defeat of [IS], prevents the conditions under which it can re-emerge and restricts the flow of foreign terrorist fighters into Iraq, Turkey, and Europe.”
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, vowed that Syrian troops would "end the presence of the US” in the country, while an Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman denounced the US plan as “clear interference” in Syria’s internal affairs.
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, charged that the US was still seeking to change the regime in Damascus and suggested that the US sought Syria’s partition.
Turkey, however, raised the strongest, most serious opposition, and it may lead to further conflict.
Turkish forces responded by shelling the Kurdish canton of Afrin in western Syria, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly protested that the US “was forming a terror army on our borders” as he threatened to attack the “terror nests.”
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