{"id":21637,"date":"2018-11-08T10:24:28","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T10:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21637"},"modified":"2018-11-08T10:24:28","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T10:24:28","slug":"frenchman-accused-of-smuggling-guns-from-gaza-to-west-bank-tricked-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21637","title":{"rendered":"Frenchman accused of smuggling guns from Gaza to West Bank \u2018tricked\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"84\">\n<p>\nBEIRUT: Tehran must withdraw all the forces it commands in Syria, and the US will focus on pressuring Iran financially and resisting its meddling in the region, the US envoy to Syria said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe 2015 nuclear deal had a malign effect on Iran\u2019s behavior that \u201caccelerated its activities,\u201d ambassador James Jeffrey said.<\/p>\n<p>\nTehran funds and arms militias in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. \u201cIranians are part of the problem, not part of the solution,\u201d the envoy said.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe said the Trump administration was now focusing on putting financial pressure on Tehran and \u201ccontesting more actively Iran\u2019s activities, particularly in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nWashington this week reimposed sanctions against Iran\u2019s vital oil-export, banking and transport industries.<\/p>\n<p>\nRecent retreats by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighting Daesh in a pocket of eastern Syria near the Iraq border were \u201ca tactical reverse,\u201d Jeffrey said. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing serious. The Daesh forces there basically are still surrounded and reinforcements are coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nDaesh launched several counteroffensives in recent weeks against the SDF, who have been trying to recapture the area since early September.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cOne reason for the reverse there was unusually bad and sustained weather that limited our use of air power, which is very important for our fight against Daesh,\u201d Jeffrey said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cAs the weather changes and as additional troops are introduced, I expect the situation will change and we\u2019ll see advances against Daesh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nJeffrey said that when American officials say US troops will stay in Syria, \u201cwe stay until the enduring defeat of Daesh,\u201d with the aim of establishing the conditions so that local forces, local populations and local governments can deal with Daesh as a terrorist or insurgent movement.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re not there yet,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIRUT: Tehran must withdraw all the forces it commands in Syria, and the US will focus on pressuring Iran financially and resisting its meddling in the region, the US envoy to Syria said on Wednesday. The 2015 nuclear deal had a malign effect on Iran\u2019s behavior that \u201caccelerated its activities,\u201d ambassador James Jeffrey said. Tehran&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}