STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

State Department Plans Mop-Up of ISIS in Syria, and Then Partition the Country

May 2 (EIRNS)—U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert announced the start of military operations against the strongholds of ISIS in Syria, in language that hinted at a de facto partition of Syria, RT and other media reported yesterday.

Nauert said, “The days of ISIS controlling territory and terrorizing the people of Syria are coming to an end.” She said that the U.S.-led coalition and its local partners, including the Kurdish-majority Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, would work “to secure their borders” from ISIS.

RT calls her statement “intriguing,” because the only remaining ISIS presence is near the Iraqi border, with a pocket south of Damascus, which is currently being cleared by Syrian government forces. Nauert also said that the United States will ensure a “strong and lasting footprint” in Syria so that ISIS cannot return, and the liberated populations “are not exploited by the Assad regime or its Iranian supporters,” RT quoted her as saying.

Yesterday, newly sworn-in U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was told by a reporter on his plane from Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv, that the Saudi Foreign Ministry had said that they were ready to move in ground troops if needed into Syria, and Pompeo replied that “We need to make sure we get it right,” but the idea is “that this is not America working alone on this; it is the Gulf States working alongside us to take care of their own region,” according to the State Department transcript.

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “No Assistance for Assad Act,” or H.R. 4681. If passed by the Senate, it would mandate that any U.S. funds for recovery, reconstruction, or stabilization in Syria “Should be used only in a democratic Syria or in areas of Syria not controlled by a government led by Bashar al-Assad or associated forces.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, after a meeting with Turkish and Iranian officials in Moscow on April 28, said that U.S. statements supporting the integrity of Syria “are only words” that serve as cover for “plans to partition Syria.” Lavrov had warned earlier this year about Western plans to partition Syria.

Former Pentagon official Michael Maloof, who worked in Doug Feith’s notorious Office of Special Plans, told RT that the State Department’s language is “subterfuge,” and that the U.S. and its allies intend to occupy eastern Syria and partition the country to “use the Sunnis in East Syria and West Iraq to form a barricade to stop any Iranian influence and cut off supplies to Hezbollah.” He said that Washington’s objectives are aligned with the axis between Israel and Saudi Arabia, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hoping the U.S. will fight Iran for Israel.