Trump policy gets a challenge
How far will ‘no nation-building’ extend?
WASHINGTON — As U.S.-backed forces succeed in driving Islamic State militants from territory in Iraq, and now Syria, the Trump administration has difficult choices, and divided opinions, about how the heavily devastated region can recover in an era when U.S. policy is to take a back-seat role.
The administration has stated unequivocally that it is no longer in the “nationbuilding business.” But the desire to avoid getting enmeshed in rebuilding civilian institutions runs contrary to the need to reconstruct towns that forces backed by the United States fought so hard to liberate and the hope of avoiding conditions that would allow Islamic militants to regain a foothold, as they have done before.
Some of Trump’s advisers are arguing for a longer U.S. presence in Syria, according to a person familiar with the debate who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The goal would be to guarantee deliveries of humanitarian aid and oversee repatriation of the displaced, the start of rebuilding and the setting up of local governments.
Others, however, want to hew more closely to the “no more nation-building” doctrine.
Current policy is that “we will restore basic services,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, ticking off tasks such as removing rubble, clearing mines and connecting electricity, “not the nation-building that the U.S. government previously engaged in other countries.”
The administration plan is for nations such as Saudi Arabia to fill the void.
But Saudi Arabia’s mission has not always been what Washington considers constructive.
In the aftermath of the Balkans wars in the 1990s, foreign policy experts note, it was Saudi Arabia that used the distribution of aid and the building of mosques and housing to spread radical Islam in Bosnia, where until then a moderate, secular form of the faith was observed.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson embarked on a mission to begin building alternatives to U.S. leadership in the region, presiding over the first meeting of the new Saudi-Iraqi Coordinating Council inaugurated in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“We urge you to expand this vital partnership,” Tillerson told Saudi King Salman, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the prime minister of Iraq, Haider alAbadi, in an elaborate signing ceremony. “The growing relationship between the kingdom and Iraq will be vital to Iraq’s reconstruction efforts.”
Tillerson said the signs look good: He pointed to the first commercial air traffic between Baghdad and Riyadh resuming last week after decades.
Most important for the Trump administration is the bulwark that Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab neighbors can form against Iran, the Saudis’ hated regional rival. The Shiitedominated government in Tehran has steadily expanded its military, economic and political influence throughout Iraq, Syria and as far as Yemen and Afghanistan.
Iranian-backed militias that have been active in Iraq “need to go home,” Tillerson said. “It will strengthen the relationship again of Iraq with the Arab world,” which suffered in recent decades of conflict.
Whatever the difficulties in Iraq, the situation in Syria represents a far greater challenge.
On Friday, U.S.-backed forces declared Raqqa, the city in eastern Syria that was the Islamic State capital, “totally liberated.” Tillerson described the Raqqa offensive as a “critical milestone.”
Iraq, at least, has a recognized central government that the United States can work with.
Syria is still trapped in civil war; the U.S. has several unappealing choices, including the ceding of control to the government of President Bashar Assad or allowing Russia, or even Iran, to take over.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, which the U.S. backed in ousting Islamic State, also known as ISIS, from Raqqa, is predominantly Kurdish, with few ties to the local population.
As a start, the U.S. has joined in the formation of a Raqqa Civil Council made up of tribal leaders, but it is not yet clear how much authority they will wield in a community that has been torn asunder, hundreds of thousands of Raqqa’s residents having fled.