{"id":41836,"date":"2019-12-06T08:22:11","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T08:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41836"},"modified":"2019-12-06T08:22:11","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T08:22:11","slug":"us-military-completes-pullback-from-northeast-syria-esper-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41836","title":{"rendered":"US military completes pullback from northeast Syria, Esper says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nWASHINGTON: The US has completed its military pullback in northeastern Syria, settling into a more stable posture of about 600 troops in the rest of the country after repositioning and reducing forces, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said.<\/p>\n

\nEsper\u2019s remarks in an interview with Reuters could signal the end of a period of turbulence and uncertainty surrounding the US military presence in Syria after President Donald Trump\u2019s initial withdrawal order in October.<\/p>\n

\nSince then, troop levels in Syria have fallen about 40 percent from around 1,000.<\/p>\n

\nEsper stressed he retained the ability to move in and out smaller numbers of forces as needed into Syria. But he suggested the number of troops will fluctuate around the 600-level for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt will be relatively static around that number. But if we see things happen … I can dial up a little bit,\u201d Esper said late on Wednesday during a flight back from the NATO summit on the outskirts of London.<\/p>\n

\nEsper also did not rule out being able to reduce US troop levels in Syria further if European allies contributed to the Syria mission.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe coalition is talking a lot again. We could see some allies want to volunteer troops,\u201d Esper said, without suggesting any new contribution was imminent.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIf an allied country, a NATO country, decided to give us 50 people, I might be able to turn off 50 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe US military says it is focused on preventing a resurgence of Daesh in Syria and carried out a raid last month that led to the death of Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.<\/p>\n

\nTrump, in London, said he wanted remaining US forces to ensure Syria\u2019s oil reserves do not fall back into the militant group\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe kept the oil. And the oil is what fueled Daesh,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\nNo movement<\/p>\n

\nTrump softened his pullout plans for Syria after backlash from Congress, including among key Republicans, who say he cleared the way for a long-threatened Turkish incursion against Kurdish forces in Syria who had been America\u2019s top allies in the battle against Daesh.<\/p>\n

\nNATO diplomats worry that Turkey, a NATO member since 1952 and a critical ally in the Middle East, has increasingly acted unilaterally, launching its incursion in Syria against US-backed forces and buying advanced Russian S-400 air defenses.<\/p>\n

\nWashington says the S-400 system is incompatible with NATO air defenses, poses a threat to Lockheed Martin Corp\u2019s F-35 stealth fighter jets and announced in July it was removing Turkey from the F-35 program. It has also warned of possible US sanctions.<\/p>\n

\nAfter summit talks between Trump and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Esper suggested Ankara had not budged yet on the S-400 issue.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere\u2019s no movement at this point,\u201d Esper said.<\/p>\n

\nStill, after lobbying by NATO allies, including the US, Erdogan backed off from a threat to block defense plans for the Baltic states and Poland unless allies declared Kurdish fighters in Syria terrorists.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI think it was a positive move forward,\u201d Esper said, of the change in position by Turkey.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThey\u2019ve been a valuable part of NATO for decades, from the earliest days. So we got to keep them in the fold.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON: The US has completed its military pullback in northeastern Syria, settling into a more stable posture of about 600 troops in the rest of the country after repositioning and reducing forces, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said. Esper\u2019s remarks in an interview with Reuters could signal the end of a period of turbulence and uncertainty…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41836","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\/41836","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=41836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}