After
“Liberation,” U.S. To Give Control Of Raqqa To
Rebels, Not Syrian Government
The Syrian city of Raqqa – the “stronghold” of
terror group ISIS – will be governed by a
“civilian council” with the support of U.S.
troops following its “liberation” from
terrorists. Their refusal to return the city to
the Syrian government will only worsen the
nation’s six-year-long civil war.
By Whitney Webb
April
21, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Mint
Press" -
DAMASCUS–
While the public justification for the presence
of United States troops in Syria has long been
focused on fighting the terror group Daesh
(ISIS), the recent actions of the U.S. and its
allies within Syria continue to suggest that
fighting terrorism is merely a cover for a very
different type of operation, one that seeks to
keep Syria fragmented and destabilized long
after any terrorists are defeated.
On
Tuesday, the U.S.-allied militias that have been
encircling Raqqa – the
de facto
stronghold of Daesh –
announced that
they had formed
a “civilian council” to govern Raqqa after its
capture from Daesh militants. The Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed militia
that comprises a large number of Syrian Kurds,
claim to have spent six months setting up the
council, with a preparatory committee having met
“with the people and important tribal figures of
Raqqa city to find out their opinions on how to
govern it,”
Middle East
Eye
reported.
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SDF
spokesman Talal Selo stated that some towns near
Raqqa had already been turned over to the
council following a successful operation to
drive out Daesh forces.
The U.S.
military had previously hinted that power would
be given to rebel groups following Raqqa’s
“liberation” when the head of U.S. Central
Command
General Joseph
Votel told the Senate
in early March that military officials
anticipated “that America’s allies will need
assistance preventing their [Daesh’s] return and
establishing Syrian-led peacekeeping efforts”
after a successful operation.
Considering that the Syrian government is far
from being one of “America’s allies,” Votel’s
statement implied that the U.S.-backed militias
would be given control of Raqqa and the
surrounding area, despite the implications this
would have for Syrian sovereignty and further
destabilization in the war-torn country.
As
MintPress previously reported,
Votel also told senators that “conventional U.S.
forces would be required to stabilize the region
once ISIS fighters are flushed from Raqqa,”
meaning that the current U.S. troop build-up
around Raqqa is by no means a temporary
deployment, but rather the foundation for
creating a standing army.
Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad has not been surprised
as to what the U.S.-backed operation to remove
Daesh from Raqqa would bring.
Last week,
Assad
told Agence France-Presse:
“We
support whoever wants to liberate any city from
the terrorists, but that doesn’t mean to be
liberated from terrorists and being occupied by
American forces, for example, or by another
proxy, or other terrorists. So, it’s not clear
who is going to liberate Raqa. Is it really
Syrian forces that are going to hand it over to
the Syrian army? Is it going to be in
cooperation with the Syrian army? It’s not clear
yet.”
Given that
the Trump administration’s current position
involves the
removal of Assad
from power, keeping Raqqa out of the Syrian
government’s control via a U.S.-backed militia
seems like a clear attempt to force Assad’s
hand.
While
Assad
had previously
stated
that the country’s civil war would likely
conclude this year – barring foreign
intervention – a U.S.-military-supported rogue
government in Raqqa would prevent the Syrian
government from reacquiring its territory. Any
attempts by the Syrian Army to take back Raqqa
from the SDF and U.S. military could allow U.S.
officials to demonize Assad and take stronger
actions to remove him from power.
However,
the U.S. plan is unlikely to go smoothly, given
the Kurds’ dominant presence in the SDF. Turkey,
Syria’s northern neighbor, will probably not be
happy to see a Kurdish-majority group gain
governing power over a region near its border,
as the Turkish government has long considered
Syrian Kurdish militias, including those backed
by the U.S.,
to be terrorist
groups.
Turkey has
repeatedly bombed
U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds
for this very
reason.
The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.
