"Conversations for amateurs": what is behind Trump's next statement about the victory over IS in Syria

US President Donald Trump, speaking to supporters, said that the caliphate of the "Islamic state" will be completely broken in the coming days.

"Today or tomorrow, the caliphate will be destroyed by 100%," - he said, speaking at the Republican Conference of CPAC.

He added that his administration was able to "do in four months what the Obama administration took five years to accomplish." The US president also criticized his predecessor for his reluctance to "end the endless wars."

A few days earlier, Trump said that the United States-backed "Syrian Democratic Forces" (VTS) occupied 100% of the territory of the "Islamic State" in the SAR.

“We have just established control over the entire territory of the“ caliphate ”in Syria. Previously, you were told about 90%, 92% of the territory, but now it is 100%. We control 100% of the “caliphate”, and that’s good, ”Trump said in an address to the US military at the United Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Alaska, which he visited on the way back from Hanoi.

However, a number of American media, citing representatives of the VTS, reported that the words of the American leader caught the leadership of this predominantly Kurdish military organization by surprise. SDS official sources told The New York Times newspaper that the statement by the US President is not true - "Democratic Forces" still did not manage to knock out IG militants from the area around the Al-Baghoes settlement on the border with Iraq.

“This is 100% true. The fighting continues, ”the newspaper quotes one of the functionaries of the VTS.

As political analysts explained in an interview with RT, Trump's numerous statements about the victory over the IG may be associated with the desire to ascribe to themselves loud merit for the next elections.

“This move can be called stupid, since it was used many times by its predecessors. On the victory over the IG declared not only Trump, but Barack Obama. That is, the United States has won the Islamic State militants many times already and are going to defeat them again. All this is another senseless lie, ”says Konstantin Sivkov, Doctor of Military Sciences.

Repeated victory

It is worth noting that the victory of the United States over the "Islamic State" Trump announces not the first time. He made the last loud statement of this kind in December, saying that the terrorists were defeated, and the American soldiers must return to their homeland.

“When I became president, there was rampant ISIS. Now ISIS is largely defeated, and local countries, including Turkey, can take care of the remnants. We are returning home! ”- Trump stressed then.

• Trump surrounded by US Army soldiers
• Reuters
• © Carlos Barria

However, this decision has caused serious resistance both within the Trump administration itself and among members of Congress. So, the day after the presidential statement, the head of the Pentagon, James Mattis, resigned. He sent the president an open letter in which he expressed disagreement with his decision. Soon after, Brett McGurk, the US Special Representative for Combating IG, left his post.

In addition, a group of congressmen from the Republican and Democratic parties also sent a letter to the White House, asking to cancel the decision on the withdrawal of troops. Trump's actions in him were called irresponsible. The head of the White House was accused of playing into the hands of Moscow, Tehran and the Assad regime.

Faced with such resistance, Donald Trump changed his mind and instead of completely withdrawing American troops from Syria, he reduced the number of troops from 2,000 troops to two hundred. The remaining soldiers will perform "peacekeeping" functions, according to the White House.

Reputational Wars

The victory over the IS Caliphate on the territory of Syria and Iraq was practically achieved primarily thanks to the efforts of Russia, Iran and the Syrian government, Vladimir Prokhvatilov, an expert at the Academy of Military Sciences, recalled in an interview with RT.

“In fact, Trump ascribes other people's merits to himself, this is a business and the case when you do not praise yourself, no one will praise you,” explained Prokhvatilov.

According to him, the complete withdrawal of troops from Syria would be “stupid” from the point of view of American interests in this region.

• US military in Syria
• © Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP

“American generals did not allow Trump to take this step, forcing him to leave a contingent of 200 people in the region. However, the United States can at any time restore its large-scale presence in the SAR, ”said Prokhvakilov.

The US Army has bases in Qatar and Jordan, which give the Pentagon the opportunity to transfer strike groups to Syria, and submarines and ships with cruise missiles can provide support from the sea, the expert added.

“The United States cannot completely leave there. And this is perfectly understood by American generals, because in this case Washington will simply lose control over the region and the “fruits” of the victory that Trump so often claims. Therefore, a certain contingent of the United States remains in Syria in order not to lose comprehensive control over the region, ”explained Vladimir Prokhvatilov.

"Peace" obstacles

At the moment, the US Army contingent is concentrated on a base in the Al-Tanf zone, which is controlled by the formation of the Syrian Democratic Forces. There is also a camp for refugees and temporarily displaced persons “Er-Rukban”, where about 40 thousand people live.

The Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Parties in Syria reported that the “peacekeeping” contingent of the United States had impeded the access of Syrian transport convoys, which were sent for refugees from the camp.

“Despite the successful completion by the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic of all the prepared measures to carry out the evacuation of refugees from the Er-Rukban camp to the pre-war places, the US side refused to respond to the joint appeal of the inter-agency coordinating headquarters of Russia and Syria to organize the return and accommodation of refugees asking them to skip transport convoys to the territory of Al-Tanf zone, ”TASS cites the words of the head of the center, Sergey Solomatin.

In addition, the Russian Defense Ministry noted that the American command was misleading the refugees with information about the impossibility of leaving the camp, spreading rumors that they were waiting for disruption, forced conscription and arrests in the territory controlled by the Syrian government.

The United States’s blocking of the export of refugees may indicate that Washington is training terrorists in this camp, and they need refugees to disguise themselves, said Konstantin Sivkov.

“If the refugees are evacuated from there, it will become clear that this object is in fact the camp of militants, which will later become a target, which will be fiercely beaten. Americans need refugees to recruit new militants among them, ”said the expert in an interview with RT.

From his point of view, the mission of the minimal American contingent that the Trump administration left in Syria may be to train new terrorists.

“The blows of the Americans against IS insurgents had an insignificant result. They only beat on objectionable, and they evacuated the rest of the militants from cities that were surrounded by the Syrian army. All the talk that the United States is actually fighting terrorists in Syria and Iraq is for amateurs, ”concluded Sivkov.

* “Islamic State” (IG) - the organization is recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated December 29, 2014.