More than a week after the Helsinki summit, top U.S. defense officials say they are still seeking information on what, if any military agreements were reached during President Trump’s private talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary James Mattis acknowledged the Pentagon has not received any new marching orders on issues tied to U.S.-Russian military relations resulting from the Helsinki summit. Defense officials are essentially in a holding pattern until the administration decides to provide further guidance, he noted during a rare televised press conference.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin reportedly discussed a number of difficult military issues, including new arms agreements, rising tensions between Iran and Israel, and the endgame of the Syrian civil war, where both the U.S. and Russia have deployed troops.
Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command told reporters last week his commanders have received no guidance from the White House on how to move ahead in Syria in the wake of the Helsinki summit.
The U.S. and Russia have struggled to find a way forward in Syria, with the Islamic State largely defeated but the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Iranian allies reclaiming territory from rebel groups in the country’s seven-year civil war. On Tuesday, government forces reached the border fence where a U.N. peacekeeping force is deployed at the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Associated Press reported — the first time Syrian government had managed to retake the area since 2011.
The tense stand-off was only exacerbated Tuesday with reports that Israel has shot down a Syrian military jet that Jerusalem claimed had crossed into Israeli airspace.
“We will not be doing anything additional” in Syria, with regards to Russia’s military presence in the country, Mr. Mattis said in a joint press conference with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop and Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne.
Mr. Mattis said that the Pentagon was standing by for possible orders from the White House to adjust scale or scope of the U.S. mission in Syria.
Those changes will not happen “until the secretary of state and the president have further figured out, at what point, we are going to start working alongside our allies with Russia in the future,” Mr. Mattis said during Tuesday’s briefing at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto.
Mr. Trump has invited Mr. Putin to Washington for another round of talks this fall, although the Kremlin has yet to accept the offer.
The Trump White House remains tight-lipped on what, if any, deals were reached with Russia on Syria, while Moscow continues to press Washington to deliver on supposed “agreements” reached between the two leaders in Finland
“The Russian Defense Ministry is ready for practical implementation of the agreements in the sphere of international security reached by Russian and U.S. presidents,” said Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov in a cryptic statement released a day after the Helsinki summit.
U.S. combat commanders say that, for now, they are proceeding with the current mission in Syria, working with Arab and Kurdish allies inside Syria dedicated to the final defeat of Islamic State.
“It’s kind of steady as she goes. We have received no further direction than we’ve currently been operating under” in Syria or elsewhere in the region, Gen. Votel told reporters last Tuesday.
Russian defense officials continue to insist, in no uncertain terms, that the U.S. has no alternative to cooperating and coordinating with Russian forces if it wants to have a say in the future of Syria.
“The US forces have only one option to stay in Syria — to engage in cooperation with Russia and the country’s legal leadership in the process of assisting the return of refugees and temporarily displaced persons to their homes,” said a statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday.
⦁ This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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