2020 Pentagon Budget: Special support for the SDF to fight ISIS and back minorities

Washington – North-Press Agency
Hadeel Oueiss

 
A few days ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Ministry of Defense budget law for 2020, with a record number of $ 738 billion.

The Pentagon’s budget for Syria focused on supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)’s local security forces in northeastern Syria, to support counter-terrorism campaigns and related tasks such as securing ISIS prisoners in detainees centers run by the SDF, in addition to allocating funds from the budget to maintain security in the areas which were controlled by ISIS, and are now held by the SDF.

The budget offered additional margin to the U.S. Congress to determine the shape of the United States' future presence in Syria, the possibility of raising its level, the margin of the military support and its schedule, and the supplies which must be available for the SDF. The defense budget has also allocated part of the funding to analyze factors and changes on the ground in both Syria and Iraq, which may lead to the unintended release of foreign fighters of ISIS, and to assess the available measures to mitigate these consequences.   

Moreover, the budget included allocating special aid to the Syrian minorities of Christians such as the Chaldeans, the Syriacs, the Assyrians, in addition to the Yazidis, the Kurds and other religious and ethnic minorities of which the defense budget described as the steadfast peoples in the region for centuries, until the invasion of ISIS in 2014.