Following the defeat of the Syrian government on December 8, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on December 11 initiated an unscheduled visit to Syria’s immediate neighbours Jordan and Turkey. The shaping of Syria’s future is expected to be central to discussions, with the country’s territory currently being split between Turkish-backed Islamist paramilitaries, many of which have Turkish officers within their ranks, as well as the Israel Defence Forces which have advanced deep into the country, and U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in the country’s oil rich northeastern regions. Syria was the first state in the Middle East to leave the Western sphere of influence and form close ties with the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, with the placing of its territory under Western Bloc influence having been an objective of Western, Turkish and Israeli policy in the region for over half a century. While the strategic benefits for these actors of Syria’s defeat are tremendous and wide ranging, one of the most significant for the United States is the obtaining of Syria’s arsenals of Soviet, North Korean and Russian military equipment, which are some of the very largest in the world.
Poster Comment:
Also, Kurds are adjacent to US troops in Syria in an area Erdogan claims is now part of Turkey. Clash between US and Turkey is possible.