{"id":26404,"date":"2018-12-21T10:27:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T10:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26404"},"modified":"2018-12-21T10:27:39","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T10:27:39","slug":"hamas-leader-likely-to-visit-moscow-at-start-of-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26404","title":{"rendered":"Hamas leader likely to visit Moscow at start of 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nJEDDAH:\u00a0The US will not police the Middle East and it was time for Russia, Iran and the Assad regime in Syria to play a greater role in fighting Daesh, Donald Trump said on Thursday hours before his defense secretary quit<\/strong><\/a>, citing policy differences.<\/p>\n

\nThe US president was expanding on his decision to withdraw America\u2019s 2,000 remaining troops from northern Syria, where they have been combating the militant group alongside an alliance of Kurdish militias.<\/p>\n

\nIn a letter to Trump on Thursday, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said his political outlook, which cherishes traditional alliances, could no longer be reconciled with that of the president, who has poured scorn on longstanding partnerships and repeatedly sought closer ties with Russia.<\/p>\n

\nTrump\u2019s announcement on Wednesday took US allies, politicians and military chiefs by surprise, but he said on Thursday it had been his aim since he was elected two years ago.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe\u2019ve won against Daesh. We\u2019ve beaten them and we\u2019ve beaten them badly. We\u2019ve taken back the land. And now it\u2019s time for our troops to come back home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cDoes the USA want to be the policeman of the Middle East, getting nothing but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing? Do we want to be there forever? It\u2019s time for others to finally fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe president also attacked US Republican lawmaker Lindsey Graham for putting American lives at risk in Syria, after the senator branded Trump\u2019s claim that Daesh had been defeated as \u201cfake news\u201d and called the pull out \u201cdisastrous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSo hard to believe that Lindsey Graham would be against saving soldier lives & billions of $$$,\u201d the president wrote on Twitter, adding: \u201cwhy are we fighting for our enemy, Syria, by staying & killing ISIS for them, Russia, Iran & other locals? Time to focus on our Country & bring our youth back home where they belong!\u201d<\/p>\n

\nA US official, late on Thursday, said that the Trump administration has also decided to remove a significant amount of troops from Afghanistan<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nFrance and Britain pledged on Thursday to keep their forces in the region, and warned that, contrary to Trump\u2019s claim that Daesh had been defeated, the fight was far from over.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe remain committed to the global coalition and the campaign to deny Daesh territory and ensure its enduring defeat,\u201d a spokesman for Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Theresa May said.<\/p>\n

\nFrench European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said: \u201cIt\u2019s true that the coalition has made significant progress in Syria, but this fight continues, and we will continue it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nTrump did not address the air campaign against Daesh targets. Pentagon spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich said airstrikes would continue while American soldiers were in Syria, but not necessarily after they leave.<\/p>\n

\nRussian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the US withdrawal, and said Trump was right to do so.<\/p>\n

\nThe main losers are expected to be Kurdish militias in northern Syria. Turkey views many of them as terrorists and has long threatened military action, but the US presence has provided a measure of protection.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cA military operation can now be done with more ease and less risk given that there won\u2019t be an issue of a confrontation with US troops,\u201d Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat who chairs the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy in Istanbul, told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cBut Ankara may also decide to allow the Assad regime to establish its control over this territory, and ensure that it does not represent a security threat to Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JEDDAH:\u00a0The US will not police the Middle East and it was time for Russia, Iran and the Assad regime in Syria to play a greater role in fighting Daesh, Donald Trump said on Thursday hours before his defense secretary quit, citing policy differences. The US president was expanding on his decision to withdraw America\u2019s 2,000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26404","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\/26404","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=26404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}