The situation in Syria has calmed down following Turkey’s October incursion, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told lawmakers yesterday.
“My current assessment is that the situation up there is generally stabilized,” Esper said on Wednesday during a House Armed Services Committee hearing. “You know no ceasefire is perfect if you will. I think the wild card is always these Turkish surrogate forces,” he said, referring to some of the troops accused of war crimes.
Additionally, he noted, the United States has resumed counter-ISIS operations with its Syrian Kurdish partners.
“These things take a while to unfold,” said Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the same hearing. The roughy 20-mile-wide buffer zone along Turkey’s southern border with Syria was divided into three sections, Milley said, with Turkey controlling the middle, and Russia and Syria controlling the ends.
“We’re watching it all very closely, with respect to what will happen with the SDF [the Syrian Democratic Forces],” Milley said. “The SDF has already made adjustments in that particular area. We’re still working with them in the eastern portion of northeast Syria, and then they’re working with Russian, Syrian regimes in other parts of Syria.”
Asked about President Trump’s assertion that U.S. troops are staying in Syria to guard the oil the U.S. is keeping, Esper pushed back.
“We are there to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS. So a subtask of that is we’ve directed to our commander on the ground to deny ISIS access to that oil because whoever controls that oil controls a resource that allows them to buy weapons, equipment,” Esper said.
“My biggest concern with Syria and Turkey is actually Turkey-Russia,” the defense secretary said. “The concern is that Turkey is moving out of the NATO orbit as I’ve said publicly on several occasions. I think our challenge is to figure out how we can get them back, closer into the NATO alliance, because I think they’re a critical and longstanding nearly 70-year partner of ours.”
Meanwhile, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday advanced a bipartisan sanctions bill to punish Turkey for its purchase of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles, and Turkey threatened to retaliate.
Read more from our senior writer on defense and national security in today’s edition of Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense.
