US Establishes New Military Base in Syria's Oil-Rich Deir ez-Zor
Despite President Donald Trump’s earlier promise to leave Syria in the immediate future, the United States has set up a military facility in Eastern Deir ez-Zor. Various news agencies have reported, Fars news agency was citing the Arabic-language Orient news website.
Earlier in the day, the White House reiterated President Trump’s resolve to withdraw US forces from Syria as soon as possible following French President Emmanuel Macron’s remark about convincing his American counterpart to maintain a US presence in the war-torn country for a long time.
“The US mission has not changed – the president has been clear he wants US forces to come home as quickly as possible. We are determined to completely crush [Daesh] and create the conditions that will prevent its return. In addition, we expect our regional allies and partners to take greater responsibility both militarily and financially for securing the region,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
On April 14, the United States, the UK and France carried out coordinated airstrikes against Syria in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by the government of Bashar al-Assad in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta, since refuted by The Independent in Britain itself with a report from Robert Fisk that includes dozens of eye-witnesses as well as doctors. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the three countries fired over 100 missiles, three-quarters of which were either intercepted by the Syrian Air Defenses or missed their targets.
Since 2014, the US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what it called Daesh targets in Syria without a UN mandate or Damascus’s consent. The Assad government has consistently denounced the US military presence in the country as a “violation” of national sovereignty.