President Trump aiming to get out of the ongoing Syrian War had a telephone conversation with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in last December. But he reportedly asked the King to pay a whopping USD 4 Billion. And as he finished the call, he was very optimistic of his near success deal, according to U.S. officials.
The President needed money from the Kingodom and many other nations to be able to help rebuild infrastructure and stabilize parts of Syria which was liberated by the U.S. military and its allies from local from Islamic State. The main goal after the was is to prevent regrouping of the Islamic State as well as President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian partners from claiming other areas at a time when U.S. forces are busy mopping up the militants.
The Saudis, whose crown prince is to arrive in Washington on Monday for many extensive meetings with administration, are part of the coalition which is fighting Islamic State but have largely withdrawn from the war in Syria in recent years. They are questioning the eye-popping large sum even as U.S. officials at one point were drawing up line items totaling $4 billion.
For Trump, it is very much important to get others to pay the bill for expensive postwar efforts.
A deal of $4 billion from Saudi would help go a long way toward U.S. goals in Syria that the Saudis say they share, in particular to limit Assad’s power and rolling back Iran’s influence. Last month United States contributed $200 million donation to stabilize the efforts.
Along the same line, Trump is eager to free US out of the war for which he already declared that the war with Islamic State is nearing. In a speech the President boasted about the U.S. troops in California, he said, “We knocked the hell out of them.”
“We won’t let up until ISIS is completely destroyed,” Trump said, using an acronym for the militants. “ISIS never thought this would happen. They never got hit like this.”
The policy of Pentagon has always limited U.S. involvement in the civil war in Syria almost exclusively to fighting the Islamic State through proxy forces backed by American troops.
Till now the fight has been successful. But despite the defeat of Islamic territory, the likelihood of an Assad victory in the ongoing civil war has left many policymakers and lawmakers in U.S. aghast and also the U.S. mission in Syria jumbled and confused.
Gen. Joseph L. Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East area, was asked in congressional testimony Tuesday whether Assad, with Iranian and Russian help, had already won.
“I do not think that is too strong of a statement,” Votel replied. “I think they have provided him with the wherewithal to be ascendant at this point.”
The question is of important significance, since the second phase of current U.S. strategy in Syria, after defeating the Islamic State, is to promote a political settlement of the war that ultimately includes the exit of both Assad and Iran.