Alliance forces to backfill US ground troops in Syria

Ahmed Sultan

Several member states of the counter-ISIS coalition are expected to announce within weeks that they will backfill US ground troops withdrawing from Syria, in what would be a major development for President Trump’s desire to limit American military involvement in the conflict.

“There’s something pending to look forward to. Very pending,” Jim Jeffrey, top US envoy to Syria and the counter-ISIS coalition, told Defense News in an exclusive interview.

The envoy declined to reveal which countries he expected to provide the troops, leaving it to individual governments to make their own announcements.

Jeffrey also said there is hope for the Geneva peace process, even though just one day earlier acting US Ambassador to the UN Jonathan Cohen told the Security Council that it was time to scrap the effort.

On Friday, the Syrian government said President Bashar al-Assad had accepted a suggestion that would allow the appointment of the final six members of a constitutional committee. To be composed of 50 members each from the Syrian regime, the opposition, and civil society, the committee would meet in Geneva to hash out a way forward for the divided country.

Jeffrey confirmed the development, saying if the committee could form it would change the course of the entire conflict.

“We are very close to standing up a constitutional committee,” he said. “The next step, if resolved, is to have an inaugural ceremony in Geneva and to begin a political process that will represent a dramatic change in the whole Syrian conflict,” he said.

“I am hopeful,” that ceremony could occur this year, Jeffrey said.

A report estimating the group’s current strength released by the Institute for the Study of War this week claimed that “ISIS likely has the capability to seize another major urban center in Iraq or Syria.”

Jeffrey called the estimate “bullshit.”

n the northeast, Jeffrey said he felt US talks with Turkey to negotiate a safe zone for civilians on the ground were making progress. The rift over Turkey’s intent to purchase Russia S-400 anti-aircraft missile system “has not blocked us having fruitful discussions.”