Bush’s foreign policy advisor: No Turkey improved relations with Washington during the Trump administration

Washington DC – North-Press Agency

Hadeel Oueis

Michael Johns, foreign policy advisor in the former U.S. president administration George Bush, has told North-Press that although the United States had fulfilled its goal of defeating the “Caliphate,” it should retain strategic interests in Syrian territories, where other actors have implicit hostilities towards the United States, with no regard to any future conflicts that may occur in Syria.

“The Trump administration is doing well in Syria, where it has achieved a number of goals, and prevented Iranian and Russian influence by approaching US-backed areas, at least a better achievement than what have been done in previous years”, Johns said.

Johns pointed out that the danger of the Islamic State group and the need to keep U.S. interests in Syria stem from the record speed of spread of the extremist organization, as taking large areas of Syria and Iraq to be turned into a terrorist organization that targets the whole world.

Moreover, he noted that what Russia and Iran are doing in Syrian territories does not serve the goal of a sustainable defeat of extremism, where “both countries are scrambling to meet their immediate interests with no regard for future uncontrolled conflicts in Syria”, he said.

The former foreign policy advisor Michael Johns added that all Russian efforts to keep Assad in command were aimed exclusively at reaping the greatest possible gains from the war, while he considered the Iranian presence is likely swinging in Syria.

Johns said that while there is a glimpse of hope that Iran will be driven out of Syria, but it’s possible though, “and Iran may be more weakened in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Gaza Strip and the West Bank soon”, adding: “Any future talks with Iran should include a nuclear agreement, negotiating to terminate its harmful existence to the stability of the Arab countries”.

In the regard of the relationship with Turkey, Johns says that the relationship between Washington and Ankara could have succeeded under Trump Administration, “because it has all the qualifications to be so, but Turkey is not acting as a member of NATO, which has common goals with us”, he said.

Johns argues that Turkey’s purchase of the Russian missile system expose the U.S. interests and its military systems for espionage, the thing that could make the choice of imposing sanctions on Turkey inevitable, as “it will ultimately be submitted to, through the Congress and through elected administration institutions”, he added that it would make Turkey and its people vulnerable to risks rather than making them safer.