Trump is Getting in His Team’s Way on Syria – Washington Post Editorial
The civil war in Syria may be on the verge of another turn for the worse. Syrian government and allied forces are reportedly massing for a potential assault on the northern province of Idlib, one of the last areas of the country not under government control. Tens of thousands of rebel fighters are based there, including forces linked to al-Qaeda, along with some 3 million civilians, many of whom are refugees from other parts of the country. An offensive by the regime could mean thousands more deaths and drive a new wave of refugees toward neighboring countries, as well as Europe. Meanwhile, efforts by Iran to entrench itself in the country risk triggering a war with Israel.
National security professionals in the Trump administration appear to recognize these dangers. Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named a seasoned diplomat as special envoy for Syria, charged with reviving a U.N.-sponsored peace process. In a briefing, senior officials told reporters that U.S. forces based in eastern Syria would not be leaving anytime soon and insisted that reconstruction aid for government-controlled areas would be blocked until an acceptable political process was underway. On Wednesday, national security adviser John Bolton publicly warned the regime of Bashar al-Assad not to employ chemical weapons in any new attack and said the United States was determined to “deal with the presence of the Iranians.”
Any U.S. strategy in Syria would face steep obstacles, including the machinations of Russia, which claims to want to restrain the regime and remove the Iranians but, in practice, abets both…