US now overtly admits its aim in Syria is to make it ‘tough’ for Moscow and Damascus to defeat terrorists

The State Division’s particular envoy for Syria has simply admitted that the US goals to defend jihadist militants in Idlib towards ‘Russian aggression,’ proving as soon as once more that the swamp in Foggy Backside is alive and properly.

Russia and the Syrian authorities “are out to get a army victory in all of Syria,” Ambassador James Jeffrey advised reporters on a convention name out of Brussels on Tuesday.

Our aim is to make it very tough for them to do this by a wide range of diplomatic, army, and different actions.

For instance these strategies, Jeffrey cited the US menace to reply “in a really savage army approach” towards any chemical assaults, which he described as “a favourite tactic of the Syrian regime in making advances.” That is factually unfaithful, for the reason that alleged assaults all the time occur after Syrian Military victories, as a pretext for US intervention. 

Jeffrey additionally famous that there are US and coalition troops in elements of Syria – formally there to combat Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS), however actually “guarding” the oil fields. He tellingly described their presence as “a complication” for the Syrian authorities. 

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Jeffrey and US ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield have been in Brussels after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s go to, to debate methods the US and NATO will help Ankara shield its pet militants of their final remaining redoubt – Syria’s Idlib province.

However whereas Satterfield described Idlib as containing “three million-plus harmless civilians, nearly all of whom are girls and kids,” and accused “Russian aggression” of searching for to displace them, hearken to how Jeffrey selected to explain the scenario, when requested by a CNN reporter if NATO was contemplating sending in floor troops:

I believe you possibly can neglect floor troops. Turkey has demonstrated ably that it and its opposition forces are greater than able to holding floor on their very own.

That is both appallingly ignorant or downright delusional, because the Syrian military had efficiently rolled up the Turkish-backed militants and the ceasefire Ankara agreed to in Moscow final week confirmed that. 

Résumé par dates clés de l’opération de l'armée syrienne dans la région d'#Idlib jusqu'à l'accord de cessez-le-feu négocié par la #Russie et la #Turquie (section 1 : 6 mai – 31 août 2019 ; section 2 : 19 déc 2019 – 6 mars 2020) pic.twitter.com/FcNWUThWBa

— Syria Intelligence (@syriaintel) March eight, 2020

The true revelation right here is that the militants are described as Turkey’s “opposition.” Distinction this with the phrases of Colonel Myles Caggins, spokesman for the anti-ISIS coalition’s army arm, simply three weeks in the past:

“Idlib province appears to be a magnet for terrorist teams, particularly as a result of it’s an ungoverned area in some ways,” Caggins advised Sky Information. “There are [a] number of teams there — all of them are a nuisance, a menace and a menace to… a whole bunch of 1000’s of civilians who’re simply making an attempt to make it by the winter.”

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Keep in mind that Jeffrey doubles as Washington’s particular envoy to the coalition towards IS, that notorious Schroedinger entity that both doesn’t exist any extra – when US President Donald Trump seeks to say victory towards the self-proclaimed caliphate – or is about to make a resurgence large time and requires US army presence in perpetuity to stop that, because the State Division and the Pentagon desire to see it.

For sure, this entrenched insistence on legacy insurance policies doesn’t do a lot for Trump’s promise to drag out US troops from “infinite wars” within the Center East.

Neither Jeffrey nor Satterfield, nor any of the reporters asking them questions, talked about even as soon as the existence of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – the newest incarnation of the infamous Al-Nusra, an Al-Qaeda affiliate whose fighters dominate the ranks of the militants in Idlib. Listening to them, one may assume it doesn’t exist!

Jeffrey and Satterfield overtly admit that an outright Syrian victory over these terrorists would deny the “worldwide group” – as they type the US and its allies – the leverage to insist on regime change in Damascus. Which is extremely wealthy in irony provided that the only real authorized pretext on which the US has any troops in Syria, in open violation of worldwide regulation, is a congressional authorization to make use of drive towards… Al-Qaeda.