middle east
U.S. raises $300 million from allies for Syria stabilization
[su_label type=”info”]SMA News – Agencies [/su_label][su_spacer size=”10″]The United States said on Friday it had secured $300 million from coalition partners to help stabilize parts of Syria retaken from Islamic State, after President Donald Trump demanded that allies help carry the costs of the war.
The State Department said it would redirect $230 million in frozen funding for Syria to other unspecified foreign policy priorities, while emphasizing that the move did not signal a retreat by Washington from the Syrian conflict.
Trump froze the $230 million in March, threatening to withdraw United States forces from Syria, subject to a review to reassess Washington’s role in the brutal seven-year-old conflict.
Whether or not the coalition money will convince him to stay is unclear.
The State Department named veteran U.S. diplomat and former ambassador to Iraq, Jim Jeffrey, as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s adviser for Syria, a role that will include overseeing the U.S. role in talks aimed at a political transition in Syria.
While Washington has long insisted that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should go, the Trump administration appears to have accepted that Assad could remain until the end of his current seven-year presidential term in 2021.
Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy to the coalition fighting against Islamic State, will remain in his role as the U.S.-coalition prepares to clean up the last remaining militants in an area around the town of Hajin in eastern Syria.
“We still have not launched the final phase to defeat the physical Caliphate. That is actually being prepared now and will come at a time of our choosing, but it’s coming,” McGurk, the U.S. special presidential envoy overseeing the fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, told reporters.
The U.S. believes that Islamic State has lost about 98 percent of the territory it held in Iraq and Syria
The State Department said it would redirect $230 million in frozen funding for Syria to other unspecified foreign policy priorities, while emphasizing that the move did not signal a retreat by Washington from the Syrian conflict.
Trump froze the $230 million in March, threatening to withdraw United States forces from Syria, subject to a review to reassess Washington’s role in the brutal seven-year-old conflict.
Whether or not the coalition money will convince him to stay is unclear.
The State Department named veteran U.S. diplomat and former ambassador to Iraq, Jim Jeffrey, as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s adviser for Syria, a role that will include overseeing the U.S. role in talks aimed at a political transition in Syria.
While Washington has long insisted that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should go, the Trump administration appears to have accepted that Assad could remain until the end of his current seven-year presidential term in 2021.
Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy to the coalition fighting against Islamic State, will remain in his role as the U.S.-coalition prepares to clean up the last remaining militants in an area around the town of Hajin in eastern Syria.
“We still have not launched the final phase to defeat the physical Caliphate. That is actually being prepared now and will come at a time of our choosing, but it’s coming,” McGurk, the U.S. special presidential envoy overseeing the fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, told reporters.
The U.S. believes that Islamic State has lost about 98 percent of the territory it held in Iraq and Syria
