Senior Politician:

Border Security Forces to Ignite Horrible War in Syria

TEHRAN (defapress)- A senior Syrian politician warned that the US-led coalition's decision to start a new Border Security Force for the alleged goal of fighting terrorists in Syria is aimed at disintegration of the country and will lead to a horrible war.

News ID: 68114

Date: 16 January 2018 - 14:52

"The US is well aware that it has created a crisis by deploying and keeping the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the region in the past few months. Now it plans to disintegrate the country by bringing the Syrian borders under the control of these forces," Sa'ad al-Qasir, the deputy secretary-general of the Syrian Forces Union, said on Tuesday.

He cautioned that the measure will lead to a political and military crisis in Syria, adding, "If Washington completes this wrong plan and the Kurdish forces are deployed at the borders instead of the Syrian army, a massive war will start between the two sides with no clear ending."

"Deployment of 30,000 forces at the borders with Iraq and Turkey, using the Kurds, will ignite the war itself as Turkey will fight the Kurds on one hand and Ankara will ignore its past agreements with Washington for the US support for the Kurds in Syria, Iraq and Turkey, on the other hand," al-Qasir said.

Damascus, Moscow and Ankara have strongly blasted the US new decision to form a Border Security Force.

The US-led coalition announced on Sunday it is helping to create a new Border Security Force to fight terrorists in Syria. The unit, stationed along the Syrian border with Iraq and Turkey, as well as along the Euphrates River Valley, is expected to be comprised of up to 30,000 people. SDF veterans will make half of the unit, while the other half are yet to be recruited.

The United States' military support for the militia first began under the administration of US President Donald Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, which provided Kurds with weapons and training.

Washington also continues providing Kurdish fighters with more military hardware in Syria despite US President's promise to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to halt arms shipment to the Kurdish fighters.

Ankara had said late November 2017 that Trump told Erdogan that he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish fighters in Syria.

According to reports, the US plans to keep its troops in Syria long after the defeat of ISIL. Washington has been justifying its deployment of ground troops in Syria, which violates the embattled nation’s sovereignty, by citing the need to fight ISIL.