Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Mulroy told Kurdistan 24’s news outlet that US ground troops expect to be in Syria for “the long haul,” working with a “very capable partner” in the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Mulroy argued that the US is “not in a bad situation” in Syria, because
the territory the US and SDF hold contains “a lot of the oil resources”
in Syria, and that the US troops will stay right there with the
resources.
The comments come amid growing concerns that Turkey is going to lose
patience with an open-ended US presence in Syria, and carry out their
long-threatened invasion against SDF territory.
Arguing that the territory is a good situation for the US because of the
oil is not usually the sort of thing US officials publicly say. Having
done so is probably not going to change Turkey’s position on Syria, nor
its plans.
Pentagon Says US Troops Will Be in Syria for ‘Long Haul’ Atop Oil Resources
Officials say territory 'not a bad situation'
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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