October 22, 2019-As U.S. troops pulled out of northeastern Syria, Russia President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made an agreement to share control of north east Syria.
Under the plan, Turkey would control the area it currently has under its control while Russian and Syrian troops control the rest of the border, Haartz news reported. Under the Russian-Turkish agreement, Syrian Kurd fighters would need to move 30 kilometers (18 miles) away from the border area within 150 hour period that starts on Wednesday.
Erdogan said 800 Syrian Kurdish fighters withdrew since Turkey and the United States agreed to a five-day pause in the operation and that 1,300 more are still expected to withdraw.
“Syria should be free from the illegal military foreign presence,” Putin said in a joint press conference in Sochi, Russia with Erdogen.
US Withdraws Troops
U.S. troops, meanwhile, are in the process of moving out of Syria. While some air forces remain, roughly 700 special forces on the ground are moving out. Reports suggest that a U.S. plan to move them to Iraq can only be temporary, as the Iraqi government has made clear they do not have permission to stay.
Questions continued to remain about whether Turkey would have followed through with its Operation Peace Spring into northeast Syria if U.S. troops along the border had remained.
A U.S. military leader in charge of the mission in Syria said he doubt U.S. troops could have prevented Turkey’s incursion against Kurdish fighters in the area because they didn’t have authority to hold back Turkish troops.
In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, James Jeffrey, U.S. special representative for Syria and special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, explained how the process of withdraw came about.
“We negotiated extensively with the Turks in August,” Jeffrey said. The two countries had agreed to maintain the safe zone in Syria, along the border with Turkey, together. Turkey changed course and decided on its own to launch its offensive Oct. 8. The U.S. military anticipated that the SDF forces would turn to the Syrian government and Russian forces for assistance, and they not get caught in the middle without a safe evacuation route.
“It was a prudent decision taken by our military leaders to get our troops out of the way, sir,” Jeffrey said.
Same US Policy in Syria, Fewer Tools to Implement Them
According to Jeffrey, the U.S. strategic objectives and national security interests in Syria are still to:
- Defeat Daesh (ISIS), al-Qa’ida, and their affiliates;
- Reduce and expel Iran’s influence; and
- Resolve the Syrian civil war in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which passed the council with a unanimous vote in 2015.
What’s not clear is if the United States has any influence to work towards those goals.
Jeffrey argued in favor of using diplomatic and economic power to achieve its goals. “Military power is not the only tool we use to achieve our goals,” he said.
But many members of the committee appeared doubtful. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen suggested that many of the diplomatic tools in Syria have to be pulled now that the protection of the U.S. military is gone. Sen. Rand Paul said the possibility for peace exists in Syria, “but the U.S. won’t have a role.”
Others put President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw more bluntly.
“Our president got rolled,” Sen. Chris Coons said.
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