Ex-US military officer: US support for SDF made Turkey strive for life-or-death battle
Washington – North-Press Agency
Hadeel Oueis
In an interview with North-Press, the retired US colonel Abbas Dahouk said that Turkey is fighting a life or death battle in Syria for its interests, while standing by the position of Iran, which is trying to defend its presence in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen after the US had supported the spearhead of the Turkish opposition in Syria, while its attempts failed to make Arab allies for the US in Syria, as the American military commanders are accustomed now to deal with specific Syrian commanders such as Mazloum Abdi.
The retired US colonel Abbas Dahouk
“Although the US military stance differs at some points with Turkey, which puts it in a position of self-defense such as Russia and Iran, the US still sees Turkey as an important and influential strategic ally in NATO, while the two sides are looking for ways towards mutual understandings,” Dahouk said.
“One of the biggest challenges is the failure to form a US-Arab ally in Syria, as there were previously several attempts which tried to bring in Arab forces, despite the success of the Arab countries’ contribution to the Global Coalition against ISIS. Besides, the spectrum of the armed opposition groups on the ground was not comprehensively understood amid the presence of some fighting factions in the same locations with other al-Qaeda linked groups”.
As regarding a looming Turkish operation across the Syrian-Turkish borders in the east of Euphrates, Dahouk says: “Everyone is buying time in Syria, but this issue is crucial for Turkey, while the US Department of Defense also has its principles, especially ensuring the non-return of ISIS, and the support for minorities in the region like the Kurds as ensuring that they will be a part of the future governing body, with preventing Iran of benefiting the region, and to ensure the accountability of the Assad regime, and the containment of the Russian influence in the region, those reasons which led the US administration to stick to its presence in Syria,” Dahouk added.
“Trump’s intentions of withdrawing from Syria are basically linked to his general convictions of the region, of which he believes that the interventions in the regions had caused significant losses to the United States, while his primary focus is on the creation of job opportunities inside the United States, and the promotion of economic growth, but the decision was opposed by Foreign and Defense officials who saw the impracticability of securing the gains in the case of an immediate withdrawal,” Dahouk concluded.