President Trump’s plan to defeat the Islamic State in its home base of Syria is “still coming together,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday morning.
“While a more defined course of action in Syria is still coming together, I can say the United States will increase our pressure on ISIS and al Qaeda and will work to establish interim zones of stability through ceasefires to allow refugees to go home,” Tillerson said during remarks before a meeting of the global coalition to defeat ISIS.
The threat emanating from Syria has presented a particularly thorny set of problems to U.S. policymakers, however. American leaders agree on the need for a local fighting force to deal ISIS a permanent defeat, but Syrian President Bashar Assad is engaged in a brutal civil war against rebel groups supported by the United States. The most effective local fighters are regarded as terrorists by Turkey, which is a NATO ally. And any plan needs to be implemented in a way that doesn’t allow Russia and Iran to dominate Syria after the U.S.-led coalition eliminates the ISIS threat.
“Degradation of ISIS is not the end goal,” Tillerson said. “We must defeat ISIS. I recognize there are many pressing challenges in the Middle East, but defeating ISIS is the United States’ No. 1 goal in the region. As we’ve said before, when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. We must continue to keep our focus on the most urgent matter at hand.”
The admission that the plan for ISIS in Syria isn’t finished contradicts Trump’s claim, often repeated throughout the campaign, that he had a plan waiting in the wings. “We’re gonna beat ISIS very, very quickly folks. It’s gonna be fast,” Trump said during the election season. “I have a great plan. It’s going to be great. They ask, ‘What is it?’ Well, I’d rather not say. I’d rather be unpredictable.”
Some congressional Republicans want Trump to deploy troops to Syria in numbers similar to those present in Iraq — 8,000 to 10,000, approximately, on the theory that Turkey would fight in Syria alongside the United States if that took place.
“The moderate forces have been really hit hard by Assad and Russia,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the Washington Examiner. “So, what I would recommend the administration think about doing is replacing the Kurds, not completely, but the Turks are willing to go in on the ground, they’re will to help us liberate Raqqa.”
Tillerson’s call for “interim zones of stability” might also appeal to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has long called for the U.S. to establish “safe zones” protected from Russian and Syrian bombers. Trump endorsed that idea in December, but then excluded language implementing the plan from the final version of his executive order suspending the Syrian refugee program.
“We’re ready to grow stronger and stay aggressive in this battle,” Tillerson said.
