During his scheduled state visit to the US, Macron will discuss trade relations and the Iran nuclear deal with his US counterpart. He will also address Congress, where he is expected to urge continued US involvement in Syria.
“I will advocate for militarism in front of the Congress,” Macron told Fox News Sunday in an interview at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
“We will have to build the new Syria afterwards and that’s why I think the US role is very important,” he said.
“I will be very blunt. The day that we will have finished this war against ISIS, if we leave, definitely and totally, even from a political point of view, we will leave the floor to the Iranian regime, [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad, and they will prepare the new war. They will fuel the new terrorists,” he added.
“All the countries of the region, even Russia and Turkey, will have a very important role to play in order to create this new Syria.”
Macron claimed last week that Paris had convinced Trump to remain engaged in Syria “for the long-term.” The White House however responding that it still wants to see US forces “home as quickly as possible.”
France joined the US and Britain in launching airstrikes against Syrian government targets on April 14 following reports of an alleged regime chemical attack on civilians in rebel-held Douma.
The US has approximately 2,000 troops in Syria. These forces worked with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), helping them capture ISIS’ main Syrian stronghold Raqqa and large swathes of Deir ez-Zor province.
Around 400 US Marines, who provided fire support for the SDF’s Raqqa offensive with artillery guns, were withdrawn from Syria in late 2017 upon completing their mission.
Paris reportedly considered sending troops to Manbij, where US forces are based, to act as a deterrent to a Turkish advance, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to extend his military operation against the SDF and People’s Protection Units (YPG) to the east of Afrin.
Trump said in March he would withdraw US forces once ISIS is defeated. He also ordered the State Department to freeze more than $200 million in recovery funds.
“We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We'll be coming out of Syria like very soon. Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon, very soon, we're coming out. We're gonna have a 100 percent of the caliphate as they call it, sometimes referred to as land, we're taking it all back quickly, quickly,” he said at the time.
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