SDF represent locals, cannot be replaced: US Gen. Votel
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – As coalition defence ministers scramble to contain any potential fallout from the US withdrawal from Syria, a top American general said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) cannot be replaced.
“The fact that they [the SDF] own this, they represent the tribes... is a really important aspect,” US Army General Joseph Votel told Reuters in an interview on Friday. Votel oversees US military operations in the Middle East as the head of Central Command.
He was asked if he agreed the SDF cannot be replaced by Turkey.
“I would agree with that and I would include Americans, frankly,” he answered. “This is not a mission we should take on ourselves completely.”
The SDF is a multi-ethnic alliance of forces from northern Syria, headed by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). They have led the war against ISIS in northern Syria, with support of the US-led global coalition to defeat ISIS.
US President Donald Trump shocked allies and his own military when he announced in December that he was calling home some 2,000 American soldiers on the ground in Syria.
A group of about 20 defence ministers from the coalition met in Munich on Friday to discuss the ramifications of the American withdrawal, especially ensuring the security of the Kurdish forces, who face a threatened attack by Turkey.
Ankara has tried to position itself to move into northern Syria through a proposed safe zone that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has discussed with Trump. But there has been no discussion on the details of such a scheme.
The coalition’s concerns are twofold – that a premature US departure from the battlefield will give ISIS room to reform and their Kurdish allies will be left vulnerable.
“We all have the same conclusion: ISIS has lost almost all its territory, but not its strength. The fight continues by other means,” France’s Defence Minister Florence Parly tweeted after their meeting.
The SDF have jihadists boxed into a single square kilometre in the Euphrates River valley.
It is crucial, Parly said, that the coalition continues supporting Iraq and answers the difficult questions, “Starting with the security of our partners in the field, the SDF.”
Votel does not envision US support for the SDF ending with the end of the ISIS so-called caliphate, which Trump said would be announced within 24 hours.
“As long as they are fighting against ISIS and continue to keep pressure on them, I think it would seem to me to be in our interest to continue to provide the means for them to do that,” he told Reuters.
The nature of that assistance will change when the fight moves away from the traditional battle field to an expected insurgency, he explained.
“When they go to a kind of a wider area security mode, then that will drive a different type of requirement.”