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US Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey has advised President-elect Joe Biden to follow the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump, in the Middle East.
Jeffrey told Defense One that Trump’s 2019 decision to withdraw American soldiers from Syria came as a surprise to everyone, but he was later convinced to stay with about 200 soldiers, for various reasons.
Jeffrey, who is leaving office this month, has defended Trump’s policies on Syria. He said: “We do not announce the exact number of our soldiers in Syria at any time,” justifying this with operational security needs.
Regarding media reports saying that the United States supports the PKK in Syria, he said: “The United States abandoned the Kurds in Syria to the Turks.” He noted that they provided a guarantee to Kurdish units to help against any possible attacks from the Assad regime, Russian mercenaries and ISIS. He said: “No one in Washington offered a military guarantee to the Kurds in Syria against Turkey.”
In his interview translated by Arabi 21, Jeffrey said, “Although the Trump administration has failed to solve the chronic problems in the Middle East, it has created a balance, at least between the parties,” and that this is better than the worst of the cases.
And on Monday, the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, announced the end of the service of James Jeffrey, to return to his retirement at the end of November.
Jules Rayborn, who works as the US State Department envoy for Syria, will be appointed to handle the Syrian dossier, while the coordinator for counterterrorism affairs, Nathan Sales, will assume the role of US envoy to the international coalition against ” ISIS “.
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