Emmanuel Macron has said that the US, France and their allies should not leave Syria when the conflict with ISIS is over, but must stay and build a “new Syria”
In an interview with Fox News the French President said:“We would have to build a new Syria after war,” stressing that the role of the US would be “very important” in this process.
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.@EmmanuelMacron discusses the role of the U.S. and allies in Syria: pic.twitter.com/nMnloASJUL
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) April 22, 2018
According to Macron, leaving Syria would also allow Iran to consolidate there.
He also said that France is ready to conduct further airstrikes in Syria in response to any use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.
RT reports: Giving his reasons for foreign states to remain in Syria, Macron listed the ‘usual suspects’ – Iran and Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The day we’ll have finished this war against ISIS [Islamic State, IS]; if we leave definitely and totally – even from [the] political point of view – we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, Bashar Assad and these guys and they will prepare [a] new war. They will fuel the new terrorists.”
Macron has recently been one of the strongest advocates for a prolonged American stay in Syria. He also ordered French forces to join the US-led missile strike on targets in Syria on April 14. The bombardment, which was described as retaliation for an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian government, did not receive approval from the UN Security Council and was conducted without the consent of the French parliament.
While stressing that Paris and allies should be involved in post-war Syria, the French leader still gave some credit to Russia and Turkey, saying that “even” these states will have an “important role.”
Washington and its allies, including France, launched their campaign against Islamic State in Syria in 2014. Apart from airstrikes, it involved support for the so-called “moderate opposition” on the ground with training and weapons. Later, Washington and Paris dispatched limited contingents of troops to Syria, triggering protests from Damascus.
While the US and its allies simply notified Syria before their counter-terrorism campaign kicked off, Russia and Iran have been acting in the country on the request of President Assad.
Moscow and Tehran have also accused Washington of doing nothing to fulfil the declared task of fighting Islamic State, instead working hand in hand with terrorist groups to topple the Syrian government. Notably, the rise of ISIS in Iraq and its further spread to war-torn Syria was enabled by the chaos left after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
While Russia has indeed assisted the Syrian forces with airstrikes against terrorists, it also launched a large-scale humanitarian operation, delivering food and essential supplies to thousands of Syrians. Moscow has repeatedly invited its Western partners to join the efforts, but US coalition members have been reluctant to provide aid to the regions liberated by Syrian government forces.
The diplomatic efforts of Russia, Turkey, and Iran as part of the Astana peace process provided for the creation of several de-escalation zones in Syria, which led last year to the cessation of hostilities in vast parts of the country.
In late March, Donald Trump said the US would be “coming out of Syria very soon” and letting “other people take care of it now.” However, the White House spokesman later corrected the president, saying that Islamic State should be crushed before the 2,000 US troops return home. Other US officials, including Defense Secretary James Mattis and UN Envoy Nikki Haley, announced an even broader set of US goals in Syria.
According to Haley, it wasn’t only about defeating the terrorists, but also making sure chemical weapons aren’t used again and monitoring the actions of Iran – which could well have an indefinite time frame. In early April, there were also reports that the US military is considering the establishment of new military bases in northern Syria, with the American presence in the area to be funded by Saudi Arabia.
Niamh Harris
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Hey froggy, you don’t tell us what to do. By the way we are NOT nation building anymore.
Will someone please, please put a giant cork in this man’s mouth; really!
Building a New Syria!!! What a joke? Why destroy the old Syria? The old Syria was doing just fine until outside interests meddled in its affairs. Sounds more like the building of a puppet regime subservient to Western countries and to oil and gas interests.
thats why See the pattern ?Any Sovereign Nation doing well , wealthy and independent , prosperous and thriving is an enemy to Supremacy and must be removed as a potential threat to global Domination.Mama and Papa dont like rivals.
Same schtick the US and Russia used after WWII to control Europe, Japan, S Korea, Iraq and Libya. What country has France ever rebuilt, Haiti?
Oh, Emmanuel Macron, monsieur le président de la République Française!
When he was a 15 years old student, he had a female teacher 25 older than him and who is now his wife. Wife? I’d rather say grandmother.
Macron’s wife, before knowing his future groom, was already married and she had already had, from her first husband, three children, whose the elder is older than Macron.
What should we say when an old lady, married and with trhee children, abandons his family to hang out a child younger than his own son?
Paedophilia? But for the french voters this is only love, nothing more than love.
And have you ever heard anything about Benalla? Or Makao?
What a awsome family, the family of the french president…
Someone has even suggested that macron has psychological problems.
What do you think about?
I think that, as long as Macron will be the France’s president, f**k the France.
It is time to build a new France, a new USA, and hope that when completed, these two nations never stick their noses where they don’t belong. Oh hey lets not stop rebuilding until we throw in those other meddlers, the British with their so called Royal attitude, I got your royal, everytime I flush.