Calls grow for withdrawal of US from Syria

Experts cite warmer ties with neighbors, reduced terrorist attacks as contributors

Syria's rapprochement with its Arab neighbors and reduced terrorist attacks in the conflict-ridden nation bolster the case for the withdrawal of the United States' troops from the country, analysts say.

They said the US' continued exploitation of Syrian resources indicates a general lack of sensitivity to a nation deprived of developing its own resources.

Syrian state media SANA reported on April 22 that the US occupation forces have continued to loot and plunder Syrian resources with dozens of tanks loaded with stolen oil from Al-Jazeera fields taken toward Iraqi territories.

Syrian officials are calling on US President Joe Biden's administration to pull out US troops from the country. A Newsweek report on April 4 cited new diplomatic initiatives that are signaling a shift in the geopolitical order of the region.

Meanwhile, there are also growing calls for a political solution to the Syrian crisis.

The presence of an estimated 900 US troops has been a thorny issue with the Syrian government, which rejects the US military intervention. The US has 900 troops under a mandate to support its local counterterrorism partner, the Syrian Democratic Forces, to help it defeat the ISIL — also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, IS or Daesh.

Nagapushpa Devendra, a West Asia analyst and research scholar at the University of Erfurt in Germany, noted that the US had two major objectives in Syria: One, to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "in favor of a government that is more or less pro-Western", which does not threaten the US or its allies, especially Israel; and two, the eradication of terrorism.

She said now that the Gulf countries are leading the talks in bringing Syria back into the Arab fold, the US no longer has to worry about its allies and that Tel Aviv "could defend itself".

In March, Iranian international news network Press TV reported that Assad said US occupation forces have turned their military base in the Arab country's strategic Al-Tanf region near the borders with Iraq and Jordan into a bastion for terrorists.

Assad questioned the benefits of US forces' deployment in the desert region and accused the US of having barracks for terrorists "where tens of thousands of them and their families are accommodated".

"Since the basic goal was accomplished and ISIS capabilities and territories under their control today are a fraction of what they used to be, Syria no longer needs US troops to provide or protect the security for its territory," said Devendra.

Exploiting resources

On April 11, a convoy of 77 vehicles, including 32 tankers filled with oil, were allegedly stolen from Syrian fields and six military armored vehicles, from the Hasaka countryside through the Al-Waleed crossing as well.

"Illegal US control over 90 percent of Syrian oil has prevented the government from financially utilizing the country's natural resources, leading to a multibillion-dollar loss," Jawaid Iqbal, chairman of the Department of West Asian and North African Studies at Aligarh Muslim University in India, told China Daily.

Ahmad Ghouri, director of internationalization at the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, noted that the UN Environment Programme suggested that in the last 60 years, at least 40 percent of all intrastate conflicts have a link to natural resources.

"With the continued presence of US armed forces in Syria, the conflict in Syria has become one of such conflicts where the US is undoubtedly an occupying power," said Ghouri.