Syria Demands an End to America's Last 'Forever War'

Syrian officials are calling on President Joe Biden's administration to withdraw U.S. troops from their last active warzone posting in the Middle East, amid a recent escalation in violence and new diplomatic initiatives that appear to signal a shift in the geopolitical order of the region.

The presence of an estimated 900 U.S. troops tasked with supporting the local Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has always been rejected by the central government in Damascus, led by President Bashar al-Assad. Before the Pentagon sided with the SDF, the U.S. supported rebels who were fighting to overthrow the Syrian leader whom Washington has accused of widespread human rights violations.

And while the Syrian government has waged its own anti-ISIS campaign backed by Iran and Russia, the uninvited role of U.S. soldiers and those of other coalition members are seen by Assad and his administration as part of a wider array of abuses committed by Washington throughout the nation's 12-year civil war.

"The Syrian Arab Republic affirms that the practices of the United States of America and the illegal presence of its forces on parts of the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic is an actual embodiment of the crime of aggression," the Syrian Mission to the United Nations told Newsweek, "as it is the basic crime from which the various crimes and violations committed by those forces against the Syrian state and people branch out."

Washington severed relations with Damascus early in the conflict, and has tightened restrictions against the country over alleged crimes such as mass imprisonment, targeting civilians and the use of chemical weapons. Assad and his administration deny these claims, framing them as an effort to give grounds for an indefinite intervention outside of the U.N. Charter.

"Syria stresses that the lies promoted by the U.S. administration are nothing but a failed attempt to justify the acts of aggression and the flagrant violation of the sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic," the Syrian Mission said.

The latest calls for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria came against the backdrop of new regional developments that have the potential to significantly impact the course of the war.

Though U.S. troops are officially deployed to fight ISIS, they have occasionally clashed with Syrian and Iraqi militias aligned with Iran. Several encounters involving rocket fire and the use of drones have occurred in recent months, with a particularly violent instance playing out late last month in the form of a days-long tit-for-tat series of confrontations that resulted in a Pentagon contractor being killed and several soldiers injured, as well as what the U.S. military said were eight militiamen slain by U.S. airstrikes.

The militias, according to U.S. officials such as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, were backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran's Supreme National Security Council has rejected this claim.

Tehran has been one of Damascus' most ardent backers in the civil war, the rivalries of which are tied to greater regional divides embodied in part by a decades-long contest of influence between Iran and Saudi Arabia across the region.

While bitterness between Tehran and Riyadh persists to this day, attempts to mend their seven-year diplomatic rift have surfaced in recent years, culminating in a rapprochement brokered by China and announced by all three nations on March 10. Since then, reports have emerged that Saudi Arabia was in talks with Syria to resume their own diplomatic relations, marking what would be the latest in a growing effort championed by Russia to reconcile Assad's leadership among Arab states.

Recent years have seen countries such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, both close to Saudi Arabia, reopen their embassies in Damascus. Two visits by Assad to Abu Dhabi, the latest of which took place on March 19, have further signaled an end to his isolation as well as a path to reinstating his country's membership to the influential Arab League.

And as Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad made his first official trip to Egypt over the weekend, the U.S. has been increasingly on the defensive in its opposition toward states rebuilding ties with Assad.

"Nothing's changed about our desire not to see anybody normalizing relations with Assad," White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said in response to Newsweek's question during a virtual press call Monday. "We don't believe that's in anybody's interest in the region or beyond."

Kirby argued that this trend held no bearing on the legitimacy of the U.S. military presence in Syria.

"As for the presence of the troops that are in Syria, nothing's changed about the validity of that mission," Kirby said. "And [as for] normalization of diplomatic relations, [it's] difficult to see how that would affect a still viable, still credible, still vital mission to go after ISIS in Syria, so we're still at that task and that continues."

That mission is drawing increased criticism, however, as Biden has yet to pursue any major initiatives in Syria, even after announcing the end of the U.S. combat mission in neighboring Iraq and overseeing the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Like his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, Biden has repeatedly vowed to end the era of what both men refer to as "forever wars."

In his speech delivered upon the exit from the U.S.' longest-ever war in Afghanistan in August 2021, he specifically pledged to "not repeat the mistakes we've made in the past" when it comes to other conflicts.

"The mistake of staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interest of the United States, of doubling down on a civil war in a foreign country, of attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of U.S. forces," Biden said at the time, "those are the mistakes we cannot continue to repeat because we have significant vital interest in the world that we cannot afford to ignore."

But unlike Trump, who began the process of winding down U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq and even announced a complete withdrawal from Syria, Biden has maintained the U.S. force posture in the still-war-ravaged nation.

New questions surrounding the U.S. deployment in Syria have also been raised in the wake of Russia's war in Ukraine. The U.S. has led international efforts to condemn the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine as illegal and to arm Ukrainian forces fighting to oust them from the country.

Asked about the application of international law to the U.S. presence in Syria, Kirby told Newsweek that "we've talked about this for, regrettably, now several years" and defended the current U.S. policy.

"They are there under appropriate legal authorities to defend American national security interests and the president has requisite legal authority to have them there," Kirby said. "And that hasn't changed."

Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Ventura weighed in on this question as well.

"We strongly reject the comparison between our D-ISIS military mission in Syria and Russia's unprovoked and illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine," Ventura told Newsweek. "As a matter of international law, the United States is using force in Syria against ISIS in the collective self-defense of Iraq (and other States) and in U.S. national self-defense. As a matter of U.S. domestic law, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force authorizes the use of force against ISIS."

"President Biden and Secretary Austin have made clear that although we do not seek conflict with Iran or Iran-backed groups in Syria, we will take proportionate, necessary action to protect Americans," he added. "Recently, this has included the March 23 airstrikes in eastern Syria directed at facilities used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and IRGC-affiliate personnel and facilities."

Ventura asserted that "the Department of Defense remains committed to accomplishing the mission of defeating ISIS and protecting our forces."

Army Colonel Joe Buccino, spokesperson for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), also spoke to the continued need for U.S. troops in Syria to tackle ISIS four years after the SDF declared victory over the jihadi group in March 2019.

"Approximately 900 U.S. servicemembers remain in Syria as part of a global coalition effort dedicated to preventing an ISIS resurgence," Buccino told Newsweek. "Though ISIS has been degraded its vile ideology remains uncontained and unconstrained. ISIS remains a transnational threat, desiring to regenerate and conduct external operations outside of Syria, to include inside the U.S. homeland."

"Our continued, limited presence in Syria allows us to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces in maintaining pressure on ISIS, preventing external attacks, and supporting regional security and stability," he added. "CENTCOM maintains the appropriate force posture necessary to conduct this mission. This limited investment in force posture has a high return on investment for regional security and stability. The U.S. remains committed to ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS."

But as local militias supportive of Iran continue to demonstrate the ability to target U.S. forces in both Syria and Iraq, Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder has warned that the U.S. "will continue to take appropriate action at a time and place of our choosing to ensure that our forces are protected."

With efforts by the Biden administration to rekindle diplomacy between Tehran and Washington over a nuclear deal abandoned by Trump in 2019 all but scrapped, Syria has served as one of the most volatile venues for confrontation between the two rivals, even as the U.S. cautiously welcomed the recent Iran-Saudi deal.

Iran, for its part, has echoed criticisms about the legality of the U.S. military presence in Syria, but also asserted that the Islamic Republic was not seeking an escalation, nor did it believe Washington wanted to disrupt the nascent detente between Tehran and Riyadh.

"Our assessment is that the U.S. does not want to jeopardize the Iran-Saudi agreement, but the U.S. military presence in Syria is illegal and violates international law," the Iranian Mission to the U.N. told Newsweek. "The Syrian government regards the United States as an occupying power. We don't want to see tensions with the U.S. in Syria or anywhere else."

Those directly supported by the U.S. on the ground, however, are opposed to their only major international partner walking away from the conflict. Serving as the SDF's political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) leads the self-ruling Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and continues to see the benefit of the U.S. military presence in the country.

"We believe that it is in the U.S. national interest and also in our interest for the U.S. military to continue having a footprint in Syria," Sinam Mohamad, the SDC's representative in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek. "The U.S. military and the broader Counter-ISIS global coalition have been important partners to the SDF in the fight against ISIS, and we remain fully committed to ISIS's defeat in order to keep stability and peace in Syria."

She expressed caution over Assad's return to regional diplomacy, and appealed for the sizable population under the SDF's control to be considered in any agreements that move toward rebuilding ties with Damascus.

"The Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria and the Syrian Democratic Council administer an area of ​​about 5 million Syrians outside the control of the Assad government," Mohamed said. "Any normalization with the Syrian government must take into account the interests of all Syrians and decentralization of government, as we do not return to totalitarian regimes."

"We seek a diplomatic process in Syria that grants all Syrians peace and security," she added. "We will continue calling on the international community to address Syria's real challenges."

The Syrian government also says it seeks a peaceful resolution, but it does not share the SDF's vision of autonomy for northeastern Syria.

The two sides have even fought alongside one another on occasion, usually against their shared foe, Turkey and the insurgents it still supports along the northern border. But years-long reconciliation efforts have not produced any meaningful results, leaving the two largest factions of the conflict divided yet not openly at war with one another.

With no clear path toward peace, Damascus blames the U.S. and three successive White House administrations for pursuing diplomatic, military and economic policies that Syrian officials argue have only extended and exacerbated an already dire situation.

"Over the past 12 years, U.S. administrations adopted an extremely hostile approach towards Syria," the Syrian Mission to the U.N. told Newsweek, "as they deliberately fabricated and fueled the crisis, prolonging it and obstructing its solution, through its political and media war, its sponsorship of terrorist entities and separatist militias, and exacerbated the suffering of the Syrians by imposing a suffocating economic blockade and illegal unilateral coercive measures against them."

"Add to this the U.S. direct involvement in the theft and smuggling of national wealth such as oil, wheat and antiquities and illegal trade in them, politicization of humanitarian and development work, obstruction of early recovery and reconstruction projects, and placing obstacles in front of the return of refugees and displaced persons to their areas," the Mission added.

Newsweek has reached out to the Office of the U.N. Secretary-General and the U.S. State Department for comment.

Washington has imposed tight sanctions against Syria and only deals directly with the SDF-led northeast. This stretch of the country, comprising roughly a quarter of Syria's territory, contains much of its oil and gas reserves that were once in the hands of ISIS.

While U.S. deployments here are officially geared toward ensuring the jihadis could not retake the critical resources they once used to help fund their self-styled, cross-country caliphate, the battles taking place here between U.S. forces and Iran-aligned militias also signal the strategic importance of these sites for a country undergoing a severe economic crisis in addition to the ongoing civil war.

"This destructive approach contradicts the responsibility entrusted to the United States of America—in its capacity as a permanent member of the Security Council—to contribute to strengthening international peace and security, including the Middle East region," the Syrian Mission said.

"Syria demands the United States of America reverse its wrong policies, end its illegal military presence on Syrian territory, immediately and unconditionally cancel its unjust coercive measures," the Mission added, "and compensate the Syrian people for the losses incurred by the Syrian people because of the crimes of the United States and its plundering of national wealth."

This article has been updated to include comments by Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Ventura.