US troops are staying in Syria: White House

NEW YORK: United States (US) troops will be staying in Syria after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad as part of a counter-terrorism mission focused on destroying ISIS, a top White House official said on Tuesday.

“Those troops are there for a very specific and important reason, not as some sort of bargaining chip,” US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York.

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US troops “have been there now for the better part of a decade or more to fight ISIS… we are still committed to that mission.”

Asked directly whether US troops are staying, Finer said, “Yes.”

ISIS in 2014 swept through large swaths of Syria and Iraq and established an unrecognised government before it was driven out by a US-led coalition by 2019.

Syrian rebels seized the capital Damascus unopposed on Sunday after a lightning advance that sent Assad fleeing to Russia after a 13-year civil war and more than five decades of his family’s autocratic rule.

But Washington now sees its military presence as a hedge against further instability, even as it remains unclear how Syria’s new rulers will view US presence.

Washington still designates Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a militant organisation, which was chief among the rebel forces that ended 50 years of dynastic rule by Assad.

“There has been no formal change in any policies,” on such groups, said Finer. “Those designations are not made based on what groups say or what they say their intentions are or they intend to do, it’s about actions so we will be watching.”

He characterised as “quite constructive” some of what those groups have been saying in recent weeks but said Washington would wait and see if those statements are followed by action to bring about “credible, inclusive governance for Syria.”

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He said the Biden administration is in contact with members of the incoming team of President-elect Donald Trump and keeping them apprised about Syria.