‘US cannot afford to leave Syria’

NEGOTIATOR: TRUMP FOCUSES ON FIGHTING JIHADISTS

‘A political solution will begin with a US-Russia agreement.’

Riyadh

Syria’s chief opposition negotiator said the US cannot afford to leave Syria as it has yet to achieve any of its goals in the region, even though President Donald Trump said recently Washington would withdraw its troops.

“I personally think the US is not capable of withdrawing its fighters from Syria,” Nasr Hariri told Reuters.

Washington for years supported rebel militants against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but ended its train-and-equip programme last year after changing its focus to the fight against Islamic State.

It helped an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias drive the jihadists from swathes of northern and eastern Syria last year, including the group’s Syrian capital of Raqqa, and has deployed about 2 000 US troops in the country.

Trump said this month he wanted to bring them home soon but later agreed they should stay a little longer after his advisors argued they were needed to stop Islamic State re-emerging and to prevent Iran gaining a bigger foothold.

The US led limited air strikes against the Syrian government, along with Britain and France on April 14 in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack, which Assad denies.

“Daesh is not finished,” Hariri said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. “If we don’t treat the reasons that birthed Daesh, then these would be temporary victories like shifting sands that disappear here and pop up somewhere else. And fighting Daesh is at the top of American priorities.”

The only way to end the Syrian crisis was by reaching a political solution that replaced Assad because he was only interested in military solutions, said Hariri. But there can only be a political solution if the US and Russia have serious resolve to reach one.

“It needs an international consensus that begins with a US-Russian agreement,” he said.

Russia’s entry into the Syrian war in 2015 turned the tide in Assad’s favour, but Hariri said Moscow would struggle to restore the government’s pre-war power. – Reuters