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Former US envoy to Syria James Jeffrey has said he and his colleagues are leaving the Middle East in better shape than when President Donald Trump took office.
He added, in an interview with “The Times of Israel,” that the Trump administration has failed to achieve its three goals, which are the complete withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria, the total defeat of ISIS and a political solution in Syria. But the United States managed to secure a “military dead end” in Syria, depriving dictatorial President Bashar al-Assad of the profits.
Jeffrey said Trump’s trust in him was “absolutely necessary” to persuade the president to back off his initial decisions to withdraw US forces entirely from Syria: “It seemed several times that we were withdrawing our forces. That would have been a mistake. fatal. But in all three cases … he regressed. ” President Trump was correct in his position and decided to keep the troops on the ground. “
Commenting on his earlier statements about his team hiding the true level of the US military presence in Syria from the White House, Jeffrey emphasized that he had never misled Trump in this regard. He said that US forces and the international coalition led by them in Syria “are not only fighting ISIS, but are also preventing Assad from gaining ground,” adding that Turkish forces are doing the same in northern Syria, while ” the Israeli air force rules the sky. “
He pointed to the existence of a “broad coalition” supported by the United Nations and the European Union, which imposed sanctions that “destroyed Assad economically”, in cooperation with the Arab League, which contributed to isolate Assad diplomatically.
He said that Russia and Iran “inherited a failed state in a quagmire,” and to get out of this stalemate, they would be forced to negotiate and make concessions. He added that the challenge for the Biden administration is to persuade Russia and Iran to accept settlements that will end the bloodshed in Syria and “bring their creature, Assad, under control” amid “the growing reluctance of the two countries. ” To do it. He added that if the United States failed to reach a compromise solution, including Iran’s withdrawal from Syria, then “an interim strategy must be put in place to prevent them from winning.”
Jeffrey defended the Trump administration’s policy of boycotting Assad, saying it was a continuation of the stance of the administration of former President Barack Obama. In 2015, the former president went from supporting regime change to supporting a political solution to the conflict backed by the UN Security Council, leaving the door open for Bashar al-Assad’s survival. “If Assad wakes up and decides to adopt this solution, we will work with him,” he added.
Jeffrey defended the Israeli incursions into Syria, saying that the only way to stop these operations is the withdrawal of Iranian and Iranian-backed forces from Syria, describing it as a “non-negotiable demand” and insisting that Iran’s intervention in Syria ” multiplies Assad’s worst instincts towards his people and his neighbors. ” .
While Jeffrey lamented Washington’s inability to drive Iran out of Syria, he said that US policy imposed a heavy price on the Assad regime and “indirectly, through what we are doing, through what Israel is doing. , through what the rest of our allies are doing. We have drastically reduced Iran’s profits. From being in Syria. “
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