The U.S. has no permanent interests in terms of maintaining a military presence in eastern Syria, with the defeat of ISIS as its mission, the special advisor of the former U.S. President Barak Obama on Syrian affairs, Frederic Hof said.
In an exclusive interview with North Press Hof said ISIS apparently still presents a threat in terms of its latest insurgency, it is trying to bring the so-called Caliphate back into existence.
He added that it is true the American troops’ presence in northeastern Syria not only focuses on ISIS but “on having some capability to obstruct Iran from using Syria as a big highway to ship things not only to extremist groups inside Syria but to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the arm of the Islamic republic on the Mediterranean sea.”
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Hof referred to the Iranian presence in Syria and its danger saying “Iran has organized a lot of manpower on the ground, by which it controls the regime very carefully, Assad is not free to use these assets the way he wants.”
Hof stressed that the U.S. has a responsibility to stabilize the area, and not leave stabilization to the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF, the U.S. has to play an active role by supporting and encouraging local people to build a strong local governing structure that could cover all of northeastern Syria, something that could provide an alternative to the Assad regime.
He said all Syrians whether living out or in Syria are suffering from the war and the acts of the Syrian regime, the so-called the Syrian government, which make no efforts to address the real problems of Syrian people.”
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
