Conditioning American Withdrawal from Syria

commentary

Apr 9, 2018

A member of U.S forces rides on a military vehicle in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syria April 28, 2017

A member of U.S forces rides on a military vehicle near the Turkish border in the town of Darbasiya, Syria, April 28, 2017

Photo by Rodi Said/Reuters

By James Dobbins and Jeffrey Martini

This commentary originally appeared on Al-Monitor on April 6, 2018.

Back in January, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that American objectives in Syria were to suppress any Islamic State (IS) resurgence, oust Bashar al-Assad from power, reduce Iranian influence, continue to back a Kurdish-dominated enclave and reassure our Turkish allies. This speech has now disappeared from the State Department website, along with all the former secretary of state's other pronouncements.…

The remainder of this commentary is available on al-monitor.com.

James Dobbins holds the Distinguished Chair in Diplomacy and Security at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation. Jeffrey Martini is a senior Middle East researcher at RAND.

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