A high-ranking White House official says US military forces will be staying in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government, as part of what he claimed to be a counter-terrorism mission, Press TV reported.
“Those troops are there for a very specific and important reason, not as some sort of bargaining chip,” US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer said in New York on Tuesday.
US troops “have been there now for the better part of a decade or more to fight ISIS (Daesh)… we are still committed to that mission,” he added.
In response to the question whether US troops will be staying in Syria, Finer said, “Yes.”
The US military has for long stationed its forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.
The United States regularly conducts airstrikes in Syria under the pretext of fighting terrorism.
The former Assad government maintained that the deployment was meant to plunder the country’s natural resources.
US President-elect Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.
bd-pratidin/GR
