U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Syria, Thomas Barrack, said this week that the United States will scale down its military presence in Syria, going from eight military bases to just one.
The decision, Barrack said, is part of a shift in the United States’ policies on Syria “because none of them worked” over the past 100 years.
Barrack spoke on Monday with the Turkish news channel NTN on several topics such as the Ukraine-Russia war, the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and Turkey-U.S. relations. Asked what kind of policy the United States seeks to implement on Syria, Barrack assured the interviewer, “Our current Syria policy will not be close to our Syria policy of the last 100 years, because none of them worked.”
The envoy announced the reduction of U.S. military bases in the Middle Eastern country.
“President Trump … did something incredible. He said he would give this new regime a chance. Nobody predicted this. Of course, the reduction of our military bases is also important. From eight bases, it will eventually drop to one,” he continued.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that, according to statements made by two anonymous security sources in bases with U.S. troops in April, military equipment and vehicles had already moved out of eastern Deir el-Zor and were being consolidated in the province of Hasakah. One of the sources told Reuters that the “consolidation plan involved pulling all U.S. troops out of Deir el-Zor province.”
“A U.S. State Department official said separately that the military presence would be reduced ‘if and when appropriate’ based on conditions, adding troops are routinely calibrated based on operational needs and contingencies,” Reuters said.
Last week, Barrack raised the American flag over the U.S. ambassadorial residence in Damascus for the first time since 2012. The raising of the U.S. flag occurred weeks after President Donald Trump privately met with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa during his official visit to Saudi Arabia, where he announced the lifting of U.S. sanctions imposed on the Middle Eastern nation during the regime of deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad and his predecessor and father, Hafez al-Assad. President Trump said at the time that he would explore “normalizing” relations with Syria.
Barrack said at the time that Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism could be rescinded following a six-month review by Congress. Presently, Syria is one of the four countries that form part of the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism (SST) — alongside Cuba, North Korea, and Iran — as a result of actions taken by the Assad regime, which Sharaa’s jihadist organization overthrew.
“America’s intent and the president’s vision is that we have to give this young government a chance by not interfering, not demanding, by not giving conditions, by not imposing our culture on your culture,” Barrack told reporters in Damascus last week.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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