‘American troops to stay in Syria until goals achieved
THE US will not pull its troops out of Syria until Washington’s goals are accomplished, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said.
According to Haley, the three aims for the US are ensuring chemical weapons are not used in any way that poses a risk to US interests; Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) is defeated; and there is a good vantage point to watch what Iran is doing.
“[It is our goal] to see American troops come home, but we are not going to leave until we know we have accomplished those things,” Haley said on Fox News on Sunday.
In a separate interview, Haley said that the US was preparing new sanctions on Russia over its continued support of Syrian President Bashar-al Assad.
The sanctions were expected to be announced by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin later yesterday, Haley said on CBS.
“They will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons use,” she said.
Haley also ruled out any one-on-one talks between President Assad and the US over the Syrian crisis.
She said Syria had so far refused to take part in multilateral negotiations as part of a political process facilitated by the UN, adding that Syria was not “worthy” of direct talks with Washington.
Also on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had convinced Trump to maintain troops in Syria.
“We convinced him it was necessary to remain there. We have complete international legitimacy to act in this framework,” Macron said in an interview broadcast by BFM TV, RMC radio and Mediapart online news.
“We have three members of the [United Nations] Security Council who have intervened.”
The relations between Moscow and Washington are tense after the US, UK and France carried out a wave of strikes on the alleged chemical facilities of Assad’s government early on Saturday.
Russia has been the foremost supporter of the Assad government since the Syrian war began more than seven years ago.
The attack came a week after a suspected deadly chemical attack on the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma.
The White Helmets, a local civil defence agency, accused the Assad government of carrying out the gas attack, which is believed to have killed 85 civilians, including children, and injured hundreds of others.
The US and allies say they have evidence that the attack was carried out by Assad’s forces.
In response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said Moscow will not delay its response to new US sanctions, according to Russian state news agency RIA. Ryabkov’s comments yesterday came in response to remarks made by Haley that Washington will impose new economic sanctions on Russia for their support of Assad.
Ryabkov said that Russia’s lower house of parliament is considering legislation that would give the Kremlin the power to restrict US imports, RIA reported.
The deputy foreign minister also said Russian politicians were discussing US “abuse” of the dollar’s status as the international currency, RIA quoted Ryabkov as saying.
Syrian government forces are suspected of using chemical weapons on rebel-held Douma on April 7 — an allegation that Syria’s Assad denies.
The US, France and the UK responded to the suspected attack by launching missiles on Saturday that they said targeted Syrian chemical weapons production facilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the US-led strikes as “an act of aggression” that will only worsen the humanitarian crisis in Syria.
Haley told US media that sanctions could come as early yesterday.
“You will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down,” Haley said
The US has already sanctioned Russia over its annexation of Crimea and role in the Ukraine conflict, as well as its alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May is set to face British lawmakers to explain her decision to launch airstrikes against Syria without a vote in Parliament.
Parliament returned yesterday after a spring break, and was not consulted about the action. The government is not legally bound to seek Parliament’s approval for military strikes, though it is customary to do so.
May planned to tell lawmakers that the airstrikes were “in Britain’s national interest”, were carried out to stop further suffering from chemical weapons attacks and had broad international support.
The government says it will seek an emergency parliamentary debate on the airstrikes on Monday, though that is unlikely to satisfy angry opposition lawmakers. — Al Jazeera\AFP