Baku. 21 December. REPORT.AZ/ Although American decision to withdraw from Syria has been welcomed, it has caused some mysteries. President Donald Trump has signed a decree on withdrawal of US troops and military hardware from the country due to the completion of the fight against the ISIS. From that day, the Americans began to carry military hardware towards Iraq. Trump said he has been campaigning on getting out of Syria for years, and six months ago. The US military is even expected to withdraw from Syria within 60-100 days. Official representative of Pentagon, Rebecca Riberich stated that Washington was planning to continue air strikes against terrorists in this country until its withdrawal from Syria:"We will continue our artillery and aviation strikes to support our allies during presence of US troops."
In fact, this decision of Donald Trump has not been perceived unequivocally. Pentagon chief James Mattis said he would resign in February 2019. His announcement came a day after President Trump said he was withdrawing troops from Syria - a decision General Mattis is understood to oppose.
In his resignation letter, Gen Mattis strongly hinted at policy differences with Trump. He said: "Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position," he wrote. He also appeared to point to differences on a number of other key issues, including Russia and Nato.
"My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues," Gen Mattis wrote.
Meanwhile, US ally France said it would stay in Syria and fight against terrorism. However, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly said the decision of the US President is troubling. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stressed that the US must comply with the agreement. NATO said they would closely monitor the US decision to fight together with the allies against ISIS. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the presence of the US military in Syria was illegal, adding that Moscow and Washington have reached significant changes in the fight against terrorism and have dealt a serious blow to ISIS in Syria. Nevertheless, the Russian leader welcomed the decision to withdraw US troops from Syria. But in his speech, he was skeptical about US withdrawal from Syria. So it would be more appropriate to emphasize one issue here. Vladimir Putin said in March 2016 that Russia is completing its military operations in Syria launched on September 30, 2015: " “I believe that the task put before the defense ministry and Russian armed forces has, generally, been fulfilled.
As it is known, Iraq and Syria were Moscow oriented during the times of former USSR. Therefore, the US could not penetrate these two countries. Almost 70 years later, in the fall of 2015, the US military officially entered Syria under the name of fighting ISIS and began operations there. Thus, after three years, such a decision from US does not seem logical. A few days before the announcement of this decision, there was information that the country was aiming to train up to 40,000 local troops to fight ISIS, ensure stability, and help with diplomacy, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said. It is expected that this figure will reach 70,000. US argues that these armed forces will ensure security of Syria. Therefore, American troops may remain in that unit. The presence of the United States in Syria can be regarded as a guarantee of security for Israel. Therefore, it is unlikely that American troops will completely abandon this country. Let’s assume that the US military left Syria. What will happen to more than 20 bases in this country? Probably US will refer to Syrian Democratic Forces. This means that Syria's future as a state will be questioned. PKK / YPG-PYD seems to have been protesting Donald Tramp's decision. They threatened the United States by releasing up to 3,200 members of ISIS. It turns out that PKK has its own ISIS. Or the US may use YPG-PYD's adventure to return to the region.
Finally, on December 21, the Donald Trump administration reported the possibility of significantly reducing the number of US military contingents in Afghanistan. According to the information, the withdrawal of some American troops from Afghanistan may take several weeks. The United States has been in Afghanistan since 1979 in various forms, names, projects. It has reduced the number of servicemen, but has not withdrawn from there completely. So powerful states do not leave countries under their influence so easily. The US has not reached its goals in Syria. Bashar al-Assad's regime controls part of the country, and the US allowed the ISIS militants to remain under the control of PKK. Thus, the country has not been cleaned from ISIS and so on. The work is left unfinished. Such a situation will not bring respect to US. If we believe that it is not another game, then we can assume that the new US will emerge. However, US president’s motto “Make America Great Again” does not match this. That's why nobody goes out of place. Everyone is in their place. Nobody has left the labyrinth of the Near and Middle East.
The restart of the game, the process repositioning have begun.