The surprise offensive on Aleppo by Syrian rebel groups has left the US in the difficult position of not fully supporting either side. At the same time, the United States maintained a force posture in Syria with nearly a thousand troops as part of the ongoing mission to combat the Islamic State.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, distanced the U.S. from last week’s offensive, in which rebel groups advanced quickly and took Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, for the first time in years.
“Let me clarify that the US is in no way involved in the operations you see taking place in and around Aleppo in northwestern Syria, which, as you know, are being led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a terrorist organization designated,” Ryder said in reference to a group known as HTS.
He added that the US “is calling for de-escalation.”
The dilemma for the US was also brought into focus by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who told CNN on Sunday that HTS is a “U.S.-designated terrorist organization. So we have real concerns about the projects and objectives of this organization.”
“At the same time, of course, we do not cry over the fact that the Assad government, supported by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, is facing certain types of pressure,” Sullivan added. “So, it’s a complicated situation. It’s one we’re monitoring closely and we’re staying in close contact with regional partners on this,” he said.
HTS founder Abu Mohammad al-Jolani previously started a different group, a Syrian al Qaeda affiliate called Jabhat al-Nusra. And despite HTS’ efforts to distance itself from al Qaeda, the U.S. designated the group a terrorist organization in 2018, saying it evolved from the original group, Jabhat al-Nusrah.
“As you know, they were previously known as ‘Nusrah Front,’ an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Syria, but the bottom line is: it is still a designated terrorist organization,” Ryder said Monday about HTS.
Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said later on Monday that the US would not lift its sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which he said has demonstrated “no change in behavior ”.
The US has applied more sanctions to the regime since 2011, when uprisings in the country began, to cut resources needed as a result of government violence against civilians and “to pressure the Syrian regime to allow a democratic transition as the people demand,” according to the State Department.
Amid renewed unrest in the country, about 900 U.S. service members are deployed to Syria as part of the anti-Islamic State mission. And while operations in Aleppo are on the other side of the country from where U.S. forces are operating, the instability — and importantly, Russia’s response to aiding the Assad government — has resulted in the U.S. military communicating with Moscow to avoid “mistakes.” calculation”.
In response to the surprise advance on Aleppo, Russia — one of the Syrian regime’s main supporters — launched an air offensive against opposition armed forces in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
Ryder said on Monday that the US general in charge of the coalition’s mission to defeat Islamic State in Iraq and Syria spoke with Russian officials on a pre-arranged hotline.
“My understanding is that the CJTF-OIR commander used the hotline we have with Russia to ensure that we have open lines of communication, given the fact that we have forces operating in very close proximity — geographically speaking — to Syria. ,” stated Ryder.
“I won’t go into detail about these conversations except that we have this communication mechanism to avoid potential miscalculations,” he added.
Meanwhile, US and coalition forces in the country are under attack.
Asked about reports of attacks in the past 24 hours, Ryder said there had been a “rocket attack against one of our facilities in Syria,” although no one from the US was injured and no damage to infrastructure was reported.
On Friday, he said, U.S. forces conducted a “self-defense strike near the MSS Euphrates,” eliminating a potential threat to the U.S. base. There were also no injuries or infrastructure damage reported in the incident.
Ryder said this was “completely unrelated to the current situation in northwest Syria.” He added that there has not yet been any change in the posture of US forces in Syria.
Jennifer Hansler and Michael Conte, from CNN contributed to this report.
This content was originally published in Analysis: US faces difficult situation in Syria as rebels advance on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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