A senior US administration official insists that US President Donald Trump’s pullout from Syria will not change his hard line on Iran, a key ally of President Bashar Assad.
Brian Hook, the US special representative on Iran, replied: “The president’s decision with respect to Syria is not going to change our Iran strategy or the efficacy of it.”
Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran, speaks during a press conference in Kuwait City on June 23, 2019. (Yasser Al-Zayyat / AFP)
“Our forces in northeast Syria have never had an Iran mission-set,” he said.
A growing number of Democrats and Republicans say Trump’s move will only serve to strengthen adversaries by pulling US troops who had permitted de facto autonomy in northeastern Syria by Kurdish fighters, a force that led the battle to crush Islamic State extremists.
Administration officials, notably former national security adviser John Bolton, had cited the Iranian presence in Syria as a reason to maintain US forces.
— AFP
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