RPT: OPINION - US Likely To Maintain Presence At Rmelan Base In Syria, Control Oil-Rich Area

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2019) The United States is likely to leave some troops in the town of Rmelan in al-Hasakah Governorate in northeast Syria to maintain a military base there and continue to control the oil-rich area, Mahmoud Afandi, the secretary of the Syrian opposition movement Popular Diplomacy, told Sputnik.

After initially ordering the US troop pullout, which cleared the way for Turkey to launch its anti-terrorist operation in the region, US President Donald Trump reportedly changed his opinion. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that the United States had "secured the oil." Meanwhile, on Monday, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at a press conference in Kabul that the United States was considering leaving a small contingent of US troops in Syria in order to secure oil fields and continue fighting terrorists.

"Turkey and the United States have reached an agreement that Turkish troops would not go further than Rmelan town, where a big and old, actually the oldest, military base of the United States is located.

The area around Rmelan is rich of oil. The United States does not intend to withdraw from there, they will stay in order to control it and use it as a leverage on the Syrian regime," Afandi said.

The European troops that were part of the US-led anti-terrorist coalition are likely to leave, he added.

"Thus, there will be only four players left in Syria - Russia, Turkey, Iran and the United States," Afandi said.

Ankara's operation was suspended after US Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed a 120-hour ceasefire so that Kurdish-led militia would withdraw from Turkish border.

This step would help create a 20-mile safe zone, long-sought by Turkey, which sees the Kurdish component of the Syrian Democratic Forces as affiliated with terrorists.