Trump more optimistic on Isis after Raqqa than key advisers
Donald Trump on Saturday issued a statement on the Islamic State’s expulsion from Raqqa that ran counter to warnings in recent days from his national security aides that the militants remain fully capable of striking American interests.
Events in Raqqa were a milestone in the fight against terrorism and a step toward a political transition and lasting peace in Syria, Trump said in a White House statement.
There are no signs of an impending political transition, with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government newly strengthened.
Kurdish-led forces declared victory in Raqqa, the extremists’ selfdeclared capital where they had terrorized the population for four years, on Friday. Trump called it “a critical breakthrough in our worldwide campaign to defeat Isis and its wicked ideology” and said “the end of the Isis caliphate is in sight”.
He cited his efforts to empower US military forces on the ground and repeated his claim that more had been done to defeat the group in recent months “than in the past several years”.
The US “will soon transition into a new phase” in Syria, Trump said, and offer support to local security forces. He said the US would back diplomatic negotiations to end the violence, allow refugees to return safely home, and “yield a political transition that honors the will of the Syrian people”.
There is no indication, however, that a political transition will come any time soon. United Nations-led talks have shown no serious signs of picking up steam. The defeat of Isis forces in Raqqa and other parts of Syria has overlapped with increased influence of Iran and Russia in the country and a stronger hand for Assad, dimming prospects even further for the type of political solution the US has long wanted to see.
Most Raqqa residents fled long ago and are now scattered across refugee camps or abroad and there is little for them to return to. The once-vibrant metropolis on the Euphrates river has largely been reduced to rubble and is littered with land mines and booby traps.
So far, the Trump administration has shown little appetite for longerterm engagement or involvement in nation-building in Iraq and Syria. While it will work to clear Raqqa of mines and restore basic services like water and electricity, Washington has made it evident that it has no intention of playing the leading role in rebuilding the city.
National security officials, including CIA director Mike Pompeo, have warned that just because Isis has been evicted from Raqqa, it does not mean the group will not be able to carry out attacks against the US.
The US military this past week estimated that 6,500 Isis fighters remain in eastern Syria and western Iraq, many concentrated along the Euphrates valley straddling the border. Those fighters pose an insurgent threat in both countries and an ideological threat globally.