by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Such a move would likely anger NATO ally Turkey, which views Kurds as main enemy
U.S. commanders
preparing for the withdrawal of American troops from Syria are
recommending that Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State group be
allowed to keep U.S.-supplied weapons, even though such a move would
likely anger NATO ally Turkey, according to four U.S. officials.
Three of the officials, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the recommendations were part of
discussions on a draft plan by the U.S. military.
However, discussions are still at an early stage inside the Pentagon and no decision has been made, the officials said.
It is unclear what the Pentagon will ultimately recommend to the White House.
The plan will be presented to the White House in the coming days, with President Donald Trump making the final decision.
The Pentagon said it would be "inappropriate" and premature to comment on what will happen with the weapons.
"Planning is ongoing, and focused on
executing a deliberate and controlled withdrawal of forces while taking
all measures possible to ensure our troops' safety," said Pentagon
spokesman Commander Sean Robertson. The White House did not comment.
Trump last week abruptly ordered the
withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Syria, drawing widespread criticism
and prompting Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' resignation.
The officials said Trump's announcement
upset U.S. commanders, who view it as a betrayal of the Kurdish YPG
militia, which has led the fight to eradicate Islamic State from
northeastern Syria.
Turkey views the YPG as an extension of a
Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey, and has threatened to launch an
offensive against the YPG, raising fears of a surge in violence that
could harm hundreds of thousands of civilians.
One of the officials said the U.S. had told
the YPG the U.S. would continue to arm it until the fight against
Islamic State is completed.
"The fight isn't over. We can't simply start asking for the weapons back," the official said.
The proposal to leave U.S.-supplied weapons
with the YPG, which could include anti-tank missiles, armored vehicles
and mortars, would reassure the Kurdish allies that they are not being
abandoned.
But Turkey wants the United States to take
the weapons back, so leaving them could complicate Trump's plan to allow
Turkey to finish off the fight against Islamic State inside Syria.
The Pentagon keeps records of the weapons
it has supplied to the YPG and its chain of custody. But the U.S.
officials said it would be nearly impossible to locate all the
equipment.
"How are we going to get them back and who is going to take them back?" one official said.
The debate over whether to leave weapons
with the YPG coincides with Trump's national security adviser John
Bolton's visit to Turkey and Israel next week for talks on Syria.
The U.S. told Turkey it would take back the
weapons after the defeat of Islamic State, which has lost all but a few
slivers of territory in northeastern Syria.
"The idea that we'd be able to recover them is asinine. So we leave them where they are," an official said.
A person familiar with the discussions on
the U.S. withdrawal plan, who asked not to be identified, said the White
House and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would oppose the
proposal to allow the YPG to keep its U.S.-supplied weapons.
The recommendation "is a rejection of Trump's policy to withdraw from Syria," the source said.
Turkey said weapons supplied to the YPG in
the past have ended up in the hands of its Kurdish separatists, and
described any weapon given to the insurgents as a threat to Turkey's
security.
A phone call between Trump and Erdogan two weeks ago led to the decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria.
During the call, Trump had been expected to
deliver a standard warning over Erdogan's plan to launch a cross-border
attack targeting U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria, U.S.
officials said.
Instead, Trump reshaped U.S. policy in the
Middle East, abandoning a quarter of Syrian territory and handing Turkey
the job of finishing off Islamic State in Syria.
However, in the first public indication of
any modification in Trump's plan, Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Florida) said on
Friday that the U.S. withdrawal from Syria has been delayed.
"We have been able [to get] the pace of the
retreat or withdrawal slowed," Rubio told a press conference in his
home state, emphasizing that this was "important."
Rubio remains highly critical of any U.S. withdrawal from Syria now.
"We are outsourcing the fight against ISIS
to the Turks," Rubio said, even though the Turks' "priority is to wipe
out the Kurds, whom they view as a threat ... [because the Kurds] want
to establish their own independent nation in northeast Syria and
southern Turkey."
He said that for the past two years, the
Kurds "have fought as the ground force against ISIS" and they and their
families "could be slaughtered."
He also said that U.S. forces have a small force, "largely an anti-Hezbollah presence," in southern Syria at al-Tanf, near the Iraqi border. The U.S. presence there also protects some 50,000 Syrians, who have taken refuge from the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Al-Tanf straddles the main highway between
Damascus and Baghdad, and the U.S. base blocks a key route that Iran
could use to ship weapons to Hezbollah if its ally, the Syrian regime,
gains control of the area.
Rubio also noted the damage to the U.S.
reputation in the region that will ensue, asking, "Who is going to
partner with us in the future?"
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., South Carolina) has also been a strong critic of Trump's surprise decision to withdraw from Syria.
Following reports on Friday that the YPG
had turned to Syria to block any Turkish attack, Graham described that
as a "major disaster in the making."
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/12/30/us-commanders-favor-letting-kurdish-fighters-in-syria-keep-us-weapons/
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