MESOPOTAMIA NEWS TOP OF THE AGENDA : Allies Raise Alarm Over U.S. Pullout From Syria

President Donald J. Trump ordered the withdrawal of the roughly two thousand U.S. troops in Syria, saying the United States has achieved “historic victories” (Twitter) against the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

The White House did not give a timetable (NYT) for the withdrawal, and the move faces opposition from Pentagon and State Department officials, as well as lawmakers from both parties. Top officials in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany warned against the decision (BBC) and disputed Trump’s claim that the militant group has been defeated, while Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the move (WaPo). The Syrian Democratic Forces, a group of Kurdish and Arab militias allied with the United States that controls parts of northeastern Syria, said the withdrawal will leave them trapped between “hostile parties.”

ANALYSIS

“Washington’s Kurdish partners in Syria—who led the ground fight against ISIS at great cost—will feel betrayed and may see no choice but to accelerate negotiations to reconcile with the Assad regime,” CFR’s Philip H. Gordon writes for Axios.

“We may be giving up whatever limited leverage we had for nothing,” CFR President Richard N. Haass told the New York Times.

“It is also a major win for Iran, which has been under threat of US containment in Syria. With the withdrawal, Iran will be left to maintain freely its presence there and more specifically a land route connecting Tehran to Lebanon,” writes the Atlantic Council’s Mona Alami.