America Isn’t Abandoning the Fight Against Iran
Withdrawing from Syria, says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, won’t affect U.S. efforts to counter Iranian influence there.
Still there.
Photographer: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images
One of the most common arguments against President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria is that it will strengthen Iran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who leaves tomorrow for a weeklong tour of the Middle East, makes an interesting case for why that isn’t so.
Trump himself gave his critics ammunition at a Cabinet meeting last week, when he observed that Iran already “can do what they want” in Syria. But his comment was merely descriptive, not a prediction of what will happen when the U.S. leaves. And in an interview two days after that meeting, Pompeo stressed that the U.S. remains committed to kicking Iran and its proxies out of Syria — and to a broader strategy of countering Iran across the region.