BEIRUT, LEBANON (7:00 P.M.) - U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis stated on Friday that if the U.S. were to leave Syria, it would be a "strategic blunder."
"In Syria, leaving the field before the special envoy Staffan de Mistura achieves success in advancing the Geneva political process we all signed for under the UN security council resolution would be a strategic blunder, undercutting our diplomats and giving the terrorists the opportunity to recover," Mattis said at a meeting of coalition defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Mattis added that the U.S. is conducting military operations against the Islamic State (ISIS) so that they do not leave a 'vacuum' for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies can take advantage of.
The Trump administration has taken a tougher approach to the Syrian President and his allies recently, despite early vows of deescalating the U.S.' presence in Syria.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/us-leaving-syria-would-be-strategic-blunder-mattis/