Jeffrey a special representative of the u. S. For syria engagement can any of americas policies in that country deliver a successful outcome. James jeffrey welcome thank you the sake of context here we go back to december last year the announcement by President Trump. He had won basically over isis in syria and little u. S. Troops would be coming home from syria was costly and misleading. It was misunderstood by everybody it was misunderstood president made it clear at the time to us and to other leaders that he wasnt losing the bubble as we say on the fight against isis which he recognized could. Constitute itself nor was he. Losing interest and he said at the time that the United States would maintain its air cover over there not be. U. S. Special operations personnel he made this point very clear publicly and. The president his secretary of defense are you going to meet with. Joe. Deploying special forces troops into northeast syria to go after isis if they started showing signs of a threat it did cost him the resignation of his secretary of defense and my predecessor in the office that deals with can be combating this. Because they disagree with the policy and quite a lot of blowback from congress senator Lindsey Graham said it was a stain on the owner of the United States added that it was disastrous to us last night good to how could a clever man like that in the us and so this is going to do you have got it so wrong the issue is that the president after listening to people including Lindsey Graham decided that he would keep a residual force on so there was a rollback. The president after listening to people that he trusted decided that. And his i was involved in these discussions including with Lindsey Graham and the reason is the president didnt want to have the syria advantage he thought that. As part of his overall. Strategy of burden sharing that as the United States did the heavy lifting with at times 15000. 00 Ground Combat forces in iraq and syria im not talking about the air power talking about helicopters Army Helicopters we had a major force and they were involved in considerable combat that the follow on our. Stage 4 we call it the. Stabilization phase could be done by perfectly competent forces from other Coalition Countries many of whom a nato countries we know the qualities a true i i thats what he wanted he told us to go out and find a country why couldnt they come up with say 500 or 600 or few more numbers of troops not a bad question however the answer we had to tell him was they would not commit to forces unless there were some american for cases the statement in december we have won against isis weve beaten them and beaten them badly you know isnt being borne out by defense and it was left last month to the lead Inspector General of your anti isis in the havent result of operation to inform congress of an altogether different reality you know in the history of 50 years roughly that ive been involved in wars. I have really seen a statement by any victorious Political Force that is more close to the truth than what donald trump said isis was unique in a way that focused the International Attention from 2014 until about march of this year where as we all forgot about al qaida and why because al qaeda had gone away no i actually quite active in many different places and terrorism experts are worried about because isis created a state and an army of 35000. 00 troops commanded a population of 8000000. 00 people with a budget of billions of dollars and now has resurgent cells in areas controlled by you going to finish some of the same views about the end. Is that simple isis as a state in the unique threat that isis presented by its ability to project power into paris khan berlin and other places 7 attacks in turkey. And that isis has disappeared and thus some of the very specific concerns we had particularly about the stability of iraq and the region as a whole we now have isis as a terrorism. Not all that different from al qaeda that is something that we worry about something that we focus on something that were working on which is why were keeping troops on which is why the Coalition Including some i can tell you exactly how many but its in the many thousands of some thousands of u. S. Troops still in iraq to defy. In iraq and syria so it isnt that we thought the problem is gone away the problem just changed dramatically because we achieved a victory over isis as a Political Force trump was right in saying that whats been particularly damaging for us syria lies with the timing of this with the drool the report from the Inspector General said the. Duction has decreased the support available to Syrian Forces at a time when they need more training and equipping to respond to the isis was. Combined joint task force also said the drawdown could cause those forces to look for. Shifts none of that is good is it if it were true it wouldnt be good comes from the Inspector General does that mean its true. You know him to be putting out full so you know Inspector Generals would not ever deliberately put out false statements but they often put out in america statements based upon a misinterpretation of one sided information that they get from one or another source had they asked me which they probably should have as a state Department Official responsible for the political side in the fight against isis you would think that i would have been a reasonable person to chat with they didnt i would have told them you know. Gee ive talked with these very same forces 8 times in the last 9 or 10 months and i havent gotten any complaints about the level of american support even though we have in conjunction with president on trumps decision conducted a very significant deliberate drawdown of a large percent of the forces we had there back in march period thats the 1st thing the 2nd thing is. I do not see a surge in isis i look at the actual number of attacks incidents in isolation cells we would you listen again i did this for a living for 3 years in iraq every day excluding in parts of the time when i was the target and i wanted to every single attack that we were getting in iraq and i have a good idea of what an insurgency or a terrorist operation looks like in northeast syria looks nothing like that its a handful of attacks a week with almost no lethal casualties that is very few people are dying this is in an area of 30 percent of all of syria the heartland of isis in 20132014 with. Population of several 1000000 people and were getting 34 attacks 5678910 attacks a week now is that more than weve got in the immediate aftermath of march absolutely and in terms of needing much training those forces and our people who were training them were fighting a heavily armed conventional force that was dug in incredibly well with artillery with heavy mortars with minefields and Everything Else that is really an extremely difficult military mission what theyre dealing with now is not easy its counterinsurgency in a way its counterterrorism it requires a different skill set and some new training but i would really deny that that is more difficult than fighting isis when isis was fielding an army should the top general in the middle east commander in chief and his senior generals have known what was being planned because commander of u. S. Forces in the middle east general joseph otel confirmed to congress in february he was neither informed nor consulted about the president s matt is correct and thats a glaring omission on the glaring omission is too harsh thats the kind of thing that i see happening all the time in my government and every other government i deal with unfortunately people make decisions and it doesnt get out to the people in the field in time but the fact that it doesnt come through a tried and tested chain of command is that not worrying the chain of command the United States starts with the commander in chief he took the decision therefore its a tried and true chain of command and his but its not communicated to the people who have to carry it out it was communicated to the people who carried out what youre saying is shouldnt they have provided their advice to him before hand and they have been asked for the advice they. Probably should have been asked for their advice their advice was that they would continue on with a residual force as i said once the dust settled from the december decision the president listened to them and decided that he would go with a residual force. Ambassador jeffrey the views. How this disastrous war will end seem very different than the jobs for us who are in syria and with us in our talking about not the fight against isis which was everything but now were talking about syria but the syrian internal conflict yes you have views on how this war will end a very different from those of your victory trumpeting president i mean in may you told congress experiences in any color light excuse me well probably see several other pathetic sorry and much broken ceasefires that will eventually slow down the conflict that for us is what victory looks like in this war but its its worse than that isnt it because the people you would see as the bad guys are winning. They continue to announce cease fires and. The cease fires continue to be broken down but in the last 13 months the regime has taken almost the bad guys if you will has taken almost no territory other than the area around. Conscious and just south of italy now we are very unhappy about that because we think it indicates that the regime is thinking again about a military victory and is being supported by the russians told us this will be a major theme at the Un General Assembly the russians can deliver that victory no the russians can deliver an advancement in the it live period the problem is you have a Turkish Forces also went in live to the north of there the russians do not have an answer to that and you have a Turkish Forces in what we call the Euphrates Shield they are under obligation now bob and in the afternoon and of course we have forces and we have partnered forces in that knock east 30 percent of the country i dont think the russians have an answer and we have a residual force and tom from the south i dont think the russians have an answer to any of that and the russians tell us themselves and state publicly that there is no military only a political solution however its on the tide of the war they did turn the tide of office as i could and will continue to do so if they were continuing if they can get away with it to try to yes isnt the enduring lesson this whole tragic who if you can get away with mass murder torture and the repeated use of chemical weapons against your people what are the chances that president assad will have a stand trial in the war crimes tribunals pretty pretty close to 0 is not a secretary general Just Announced a board of inquiry were expecting new reports from the o. P. C. W. On chemical weapons use in 2017 as you know we twice the 2nd time supported by the french and the British Military action on. Basis of chemical weapons. And i think the regime we know the regime has taken that seriously has used them 0. 32 and since. We struck him twice hes been very careful. With only one possible use that were still looking into. And thats been over a year and a half so i would say thats an improvement the assad regime has been denied all reconstruction funds from the International Community and from essentially every single nation state there under a very strong u. S. And e. U. Sanctions and theyre going to continue to be put under a lot of pressure whether assad ever stands trial for his walk climbs of which there are many and he certainly deserves to thats another question but we dont see assad as having won this what we see assad as having. That is not possible for the opposition militarily to win the war at this point that is what the russians and the iranians have provided assad but im busted if the taliban who continue to blow up you can almost make it 60 at camp david and the sad chop up the political opponents in the lie about it can have business as usual with washington i said doesnt have much the boy thats. I would not compare him with either taliban who is a 2nd the saudis. You know i have a very simple. But tried and true. Attitude towards who you really worry about in this world. There is basically an International Auto horror of a flawed that we in the us are associated with as leaders much of the rest of the world particularly. Your. View is in western europe in britain and elsewhere are all part of an beneficiaries of and then there are people who are trying to overthrow that order isis is one. Among the others and weve listed them in the National Security strategy is a ramp that puts arena in a totally different category and syria has allied itself with the rand we see this in the introduction of iranian long range weapon systems of the sort that struck the saudi. Petroleum installation over the weekend into syria. Threatening israel and us provoking Israeli Military responses which is further complicated the. Environment in syria that is you have several was happening simultaneously but the core of all of these wars is a rainy and expansionism in assads facilitation of the county stabilizing do you think those attacks on Saudi Oil Installations will for the region well im not responsible for the region im responsible for syria in the fight against isis is that which is why i say its stabilizing for the if this is not this is a serious step in the wrong direction. We just into woods where this was going to Richard Haass senior state Department Official. This is a step in the wrong direction destabilisation in the middle east again if i were responsible Foreign Policy or middle eastern policy and im not responsible for either i would be more clear cut but ill leave it at that you talked about the. New trying to have this right part of that will who should include justice shouldnt it and if People Like Us who you say were not committed to any personality were not trying to get rid of us by you you know that of us i believe. Personally as someone spent much of my life that a world order to be truly effective and to be. Truly accepted around the world should include justice. But. I recognize that. That is not shared by everybody including much of the American Public because once you accept that that is part of it thats. Right to intervene or need to intervene this was very popular in the 1990 s. I was involved in the concept when i worked on bosnia the problem with that is that it gets you involved in every internal conflict because typically in every internal conflict there are major and serious abuses of justice whether that is necessary for world order a not i would just say thats to be debated does the administration have an enduring interest in this just as it says it supports the international and cost of an independent mechanism to see if it does but why did it hold up money for this mightily criticized for doing. Whether you fund something or not and whether you support something politically at 2 Different Things funding requires prioritization. Steven rattner for Mistake Department ambassador at large for war crimes that the actual amount of the funding is only a fraction of the organizations budget but the symbolism of america grenade going on its pledge to help was devastating. The United States including this administration has serial known as provided 10000000000. 00 in humanitarian assistance and that is far more than any other country has done again one very important part of americas view in this administration and at least in theory and prior administrations and i really here too is the idea of burden sharing for example the president before his decision to pull troops out of syria decided that we wouldnt be doing reconstruction funding in the northeast anymore and asked us to turn to other countries and weve been clearly successful collecting it but we have been criticized by the u. S. Congress and by some of our partners but again this is a question of if you 100000000. 00 look at how much money we put into humanitarian assistance President Trump but we use that. As part of a Global Coalition against isis Global Coalition in nato and several other coalitions with many of the same members whose total g. D. P. Is roughly double that of the United States that we should not be paying the burden that were paying and that is simply a view of his it was a view expressed for example in the nato 2 percent by the Obama Administration before him and its a view that is held by the American People the American People do not like the deal in which we have to pay a disproportionately high percent of the costs as well as be a most of the military risk. And losses in these International Conflicts thats simply the way it is and i just go back to the issue of justice. Is there to some of the willingness to look at allegations of war crimes committed by the coalition in syria im Just International report that was primal facie evidence that several coalition attacks killed and injured civilians may flouted International Humanitarian 1st be investigated the 1st of all im not a lawyer but. International humanitarian law is not law. It is a political theory if its international what is International Law are its the geneva conventions thats where you define what crimes we look very carefully every Coalition Strike we have seen no example of what crimes. Not salute not absolutely not but you would take part in any investigation to truth defined investigation find investigation by the mechanism to syria into the independent mechanism to suit the un has looked at this the i. A. M. Has looked at all of these attacks theyve raised questions weve provided answers to. Your policy which you kill 82 with syria has 3 strands doesnt enjoy ensure the enduring defeat of isis. Which youve said has turned into a terrorist organization so that is going to keep you busy for a very long time 2nd priority to ensure a political process that will produce a different kind of government that will encourage people to come back and be a decent player in the international arena. Has very little chance of that happening without remaining in hes never going to be a decent is the. U. N. Security Council Voted 15 to 0 for exactly that result and resolution 2254 in december of 2015 its not irresponsible of the United States to have as a political and diplomatic goal something that the Security Council has unanimously endorsed is never going to happen this spying this coming well we hope it will but intil it happens were going to continue our unrelenting pressure on their regime 20 months of bickering over 150 Member Committee to write the country a new constitution and the prospect of years of high dealing walkouts fights stretching into the distant future is that it or you just described the average diplomatic process that i get involved in. 100 times worse when you in doing it after a war of this nature i would say that every time you get people together saying in geneva which is the plan to Start Talking about a solution to a military conflict as opposed to allowing this fighting to continue yeah thats a step in the right direction again we have seen only one chin and it was a limited offensive its an offensive a very unhappy about were working on a u. N. Security Council Resolution condemning it right now but thats been the only case in the last 13 months of fighting breaking out so i would say that weve had more success from 2018 to the present then we did from say 2015 to 2017 for example free and Fair Elections and that was always there was a really was even when you have that in the arab world apart from the newseum which is just beginning well where in the arab world as you have a listener rations. Thats. Free and Fair Elections is a standard that we apply that the u. N. Applies certainly if you would ask the u. N. Which managed i think now 5 or 6 elections going to last in iraq they would basically give them fairly good. Marks in terms of free and fair so if they can do in iraq why cant they do in syria priority iran the removal of all of the rain in cmon dude forces from the entirely to syria that good is not going to happen the bill to their integrated with the Syrian Government forces have a theyre not integrated into defined integrated forces integrated in nato yeah they Work Together to the Defense Intelligence agency iran continues to field Islamic Revolutionary guard soldiers support the Lebanese Hezbollah command the shia foreign fighters in that what that includes the issue from iraq pakistan in the run all true but they could leave tomorrow if there was a cease fire that everybody believed in and. If there was a political solution to the water there would be no reason for these people to stay on the. Threshold. I think that. It is. A fundamental policy that if we do not find solutions to these issues that weve raised the 3 goals i have different political solution in syria the withdrawal of all. The feet of isis that we are going to be on the road to a much bigger and far more dangerous war in syria not only involving internal forces fighting the government and various terrorist groups but potentially any one of the 6 armies counting the syrian that is present in or over syria today is a policy towards iran going to change. And i certainly know that i dont know of anybody in the u. S. Government at any level that does not. On the region. And sees its use so. This weekend at the very top of the stretch to. Regional security and we act accordingly and bess is James Jeffrey thank you very much. Thank you. Im going. To. The w. C. 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