The ordered withdrawal of thousands of American troops from Syria does not represent an abandonment of the Middle East by Washington, and the Trump administration will continue to meet U.S. objectives in the region and across the globe, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday.
Mr. Pompeo, who is in the midst of a diplomatic swing through several Middle East countries, dismissed claims that Mr. Trump’s decision to begin pulling out the nearly 2,000 U.S. troops currently stationed in Syria would allow Iran and Russia greater sway in the war-torn nation.
“The absence of a couple thousand soldiers on the ground in Syria in no way materially diminishes the capacity of the United States of America and our amazing armed forces to deliver American power to accomplish our objectives anywhere in the world,” Mr. Pompeo said during an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“That certainly includes in Syria. It certainly includes into Iran, if need be,” he said, adding on Sunday that the Trump White House remains “very confident in our military capabilities here in the Middle East.”
On Sunday, Mr. Trump tweeted that the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Syria is underway. In the social media post, Mr. Trump said the U.S. planned to continue operations against the Islamic State in Syria, despite the troop pull out, and would redeploy forces into the country should the terror group re-emerge.
“Starting the long overdue pullout from Syria while hitting the little remaining ISIS territorial caliphate hard, and from many directions. Will attack again from the existing nearby base if it reforms,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
He also lashed out at Tehran, saying Iran and Russia “have been the biggest beneficiaries of the long-term U.S. policy of destroying ISIS in Syria,” adding while the U.S. has also benefitted “it is now time to bring our troops back home.”
“Stop the ENDLESS WARS!” Mr. Trump tweeted late Sunday.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Pompeo also made clear that Washington’s military strength in the region would be undeterred, despite the loss of American presence in Syria.
“We have an enormous amount of American military capacity [and]… our ability to achieve what we need to do militarily is there,” Mr. Pompeo said. “My task … is to make sure that we don’t have to use that tool, that we get the diplomatic outcomes to secure the Middle East and keep it stable,” he noted.
He highlighted those efforts later on Sunday during a joint press conference with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, while in Doha for the second annual series of bilateral talks between the two nations. During Sunday’s press conference, Mr. Pompeo outlined plans for an inaugural summit in Warsaw, Poland, this February, with American allies in the Middle East geared toward curbing Iranian influence in the region.
“There’ll be a broad coalition of countries present, and we’ll work on many issues, including how it is we can get the Islamic Republic of Iran to behave more like a normal nation,” Mr. Pompeo said during the joint briefing. He declined to comment on the specifics regarding the hot button issues concerning Tehran, during the Warsaw Pact. But Mr. Pompeo said administration officials hope to have a set of deliverables that come out” of the summit, which will heavily influence the White House’s Middle East policy in the coming years.
Tehran reacted swiftly to the news of the Warsaw summit, summoning Polish chargé d’affaires Wojciech Unolt to the Iranian Foreign Ministry in protest. In Europe, Iranian diplomats sent their formal protest of the Warsaw summit to their Polish counterparts on Sunday.
“Reminder to host/participants of anti-Iran conference: those who attended last US anti-Iran show are dead, disgraced, or marginalized. And Iran is stronger than ever,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif tweeted Friday, ahead of Mr. Pompeo’s announcement in Doha.
Rising regional concerns over expanding Iranian influence in the Middle East has been exacerbated in recent weeks, in the wake of Mr. Trump’s announcement of U.S. troop withdrawals in Syria. Shia paramilitaries backed by Iran, along with Russian forces, have been the only international allies to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime throughout Damascus’ ongoing civil war against rebel forces in the country.
Aside from concerns over a U.S. withdrawal providing an opportunity for Tehran.
Recent reports also claim that Russian and Syrian forces have begun joint patrols around the Syrian city of Manbij. The northeastern city has thus far been the main training and logistics hub for the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops currently deployed in Syria.
On Friday, American and allied commanders began the process to withdraw troops from Syria, despite conflicting messages from top diplomats and national security officials in the Trump administration.
Coalition officials declined to provide details on withdrawal efforts, or when the last of the American forces would be leaving the country. The U.S.-led coalition in Syria “has begin the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria,” Coalition spokesman Col. Sean Ryan said in a statement issued Friday.
“Out of concern for operational security, we will not discuss specific timelines, locations or troop movements,” associated with the pullout, he added in the statement. Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Sean Roberston said Washington has undertaken “a number of logistical measures to support an ordered withdrawal,” but no U.S. forces have begun exiting the country.
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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