President Trump “will not leave a vacuum” in Syria, acting Secretary of State John Sullivan assured allies at a meeting in Canada on Monday.
“We will not leave a vacuum that can be exploited by the Assad regime and its supporters,” Sullivan told reporters in Toronto.
That pledge is a much-debated topic within the U.S. government and between American allies. Trump has stated his determination to withdraw American forces promptly after defeating the Islamic State in Syria, but other policymakers and European allies worry that Syrian President Bashar Assad, backed by Russia and Iranian terrorist proxies, will surge into the areas currently held by the U.S.-led coalition.
“The U.S. will remain committed in Syria until ISIS is defeated and the so-called caliphate completely eliminated,” Sullivan said at the G-7 Summit, which is a meeting of the seven leading Western democracies. “We will work to ensure global forces enabled by our regional partners and allies will consolidate these gains, stabilize liberated territories, and prevent the return of ISIS.”
That promise seemed designed to thread the needle between Trump’s recent promise to withdraw and the longer term commitment outlined by fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Tillerson had argued that the United States must “maintain a military and diplomatic presence in Syria” to prevent a return of ISIS and thwart Iran’s plan to expand its network of terrorist proxies operating throughout the country.
“Through it’s position in Syria, Iran is positioned to continue attacking U.S. interests, our allies, and [destabilizing] the region,” the former Exxon Mobil CEO said in January.
Trump seemed to jettison that policy after firing Tillerson, even while leading France and the United Kingdom in a military strike to retaliate against Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told senators to expect a prompt withdrawal from Syria following the defeat of ISIS.
But French President Emmanuel Macron, who is attending the first state dinner of Trump’s presidency this week, hopes to convince his American counterpart of the need for a longer-term plan in Syria.
“The day we will finish this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar al-Assad and his guys, and they will prepare the new war,” he told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “They will fuel the new terrorists.”
