The Trump administration remains confused and divided over Washington’s imminent withdrawal from Syria. Most recently, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the Middle East in an attempt to reassure U.S. allies, who are concerned that the U.S. withdrawal will serve Turkish and Iranian interests.
In his address at the American University in Cairo, Pompeo pledged to “expel every last Iranian boot” from Syria through closer cooperation with U.S. allies, harsher economic sanctions and diplomacy. “There will be no U.S. reconstruction assistance for areas in Syria held by [Bashar] Assad until Iran and its proxy forces withdraw,” he added.
Here’s the problem with Pompeo’s approach: How exactly is Washington supposed to kick the Iranians out of Syria, provided that Trump wants to pull out and his administration can’t seem to agree on a road map with Turkey? The Assad regime and Iran are strategic partners and their cooperation rests on the Shiite militias. Threatening not to help with reconstruction efforts won’t end Assad’s alliance with Tehran. Harsher U.S. economic sanctions will probably hurt the Iranian economy in 2019, but it would be a mistake to underestimate the stubbornness of Iranian nationalists and the country’s ability to target U.S. interests directly if necessary.
For the record, Pompeo was right to blame Obama for clearing Iran’s path and unleashing chaos in the Middle East as a result. It is true that the Obama administration enabled Shiite expansionism for the sake of containing Sunni radicalism. Yet it is important to keep in mind the Trump administration fueled chaos as well – by promoting Sunni-Shiite polarization.
Washington’s misguided decision to serve the narrowly-defined interests of Israel and the Gulf states in the name of containing Iran wasn’t a great idea either. That choice will entail violence and destruction as opposed to law and order. Ironically enough, Pompeo fails to understand the region and repeats Obama’s mistakes.
The Washington-backed bloc, comprised of Israel, the Gulf and Egypt, calls for dual containment. They want the U.S. to directly and aggressively contain Iran’s influence. At the same time, they demand an indirect and unofficial containment on the Turks. It’s not that they are less unhappy with Turkey’s growing regional clout, quite the contrary. Ankara stands to become the most powerful regional player in the long run, thanks to its active foreign policy, democratic credentials, a strong economy and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s credit on the Arab street.
The Trump administration must find a way to avoid the trap of dual containment.
[Daily Sabah, 14 January 2019]
In this article
- Opinion
- CENTCOM
- DAESH
- Daily Sabah
- Donald Trump
- East of the Euphrates
- Europe
- Fight against DAESH
- gulf
- Hezbollah
- Islamic Republic of Iran
- Israel
- John Bolton
- Kurdistan Workers' Party Terrorist Organization (PKK)
- Middle East
- Mike Pompeo
- NATO
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- Obama Administration
- Operation Euphrates Shield
- Peace Corridor
- People's Protection Units (YPG)
- PKK - YPG - SDF - PYD - YPJ - SDG - HBDH - HPG - KCK - PJAK - TAK - YBŞ
- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- Safe Zone
- Sanctions
- Sunni
- Syria
- Syrian Civil War
- Syrian Conflict
- Syrian Crisis
- Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
- Syrian National Army (SNA)
- Syrian National Coalition
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- Trump Administration
- Trump’s Syria Withdrawal
- Turkish Foreign Policy
- Turkish-American Relations
- Türkiye-US Relations
- Türkiye-US Security Relations
- Türkiye's Foreign Policy
- Türkiye's Operation Peace Spring
- Türkiye’s Operation Olive Branch
- United States (US)
- US Foreign Policy
- US Withdrawal from Syria
- US-PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF Relations
- US-Terror Relations
- Vladimir Putin