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US claim of defeating Daesh absolutely ludicrous: Analyst

Monday, 31 December 2018 1:21 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 31 December 2018 7:04 PM ]

The US claim of defeating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in Syria is “absolutely ludicrous,” says an analyst, adding that Washington is seeking to retain its strategic presence in the war-torn country.

The comments came after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said US President Donald Trump had agreed to re-evaluate his decision to immediately leave Syria, noting that the 30-day evacuation plan was now in a “pause situation.”

“We have heard Donald Trump say that the American military has defeated ISIS (Daesh), now we are hearing Lindsey Graham saying that American forces will remain in Syria until ISIS is completely defeated. Nothing could be further from the truth. The argument that America has fought and has defeated ISIS is absolutely ludicrous. ISIS has been destroyed by the combined efforts of Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah and the notion that the Americans have been fighting against ISIS is equally ridiculous,” Marcus Papadopoulos, publisher and editor of Politics First, told Press TV in an interview on Monday.

“My own opinion on the matter is that the Americans know that they have lost in their objective to overthrow the Syrian government. However, I don’t think the Americans are quite yet ready to surrender the strategic presence that they have in northeast Syria. So taking that into consideration I believe that American forces will remain for some time in Syria but eventually they will be pulled out,” he added.

In an unexpected change of policy, Trump announced earlier this month that he was going to return American troops back home because Daesh was already defeated and there was no reason for the US to extend military presence in Syria.

The decision was met with criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, prompting Defense Secretary James Mattis to resign. The decision also caused Brett McGurk, the US special envoy to the so-called anti-Daesh coalition in Syria and Iraq, to quit.

Graham, a staunch ally of the president, said the pause did not mean that Trump had backtracked.