On April 22, France’s President Emmanuel Macron said during an interview with Fox News TV that France, the US and their allies should stay in Syria after the defeat of ISIS in order to build what he called “a new Syria.”
“We will have to build the new Syria afterward, and that’s why I think the U.S. hold is very important,” Macron said answering to a question on the US decision to withdraw from Syria.
The French President added that the US and its allies, including France, should also counter the influence of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and Iran. Macron even suggested that Russia and Turkey should play a role in his plans for “a new Syria.”
“The day we will finish 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, Bashar al-Assad and his guys … The U.S., France, our allies, 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 said.
Macron claimed on April 15 that he convinced US President Donald Trump that US troops should stay in the war-torn country a long term. The White House denied Macron’s claims on the same day and said the US is still planning to withdraw its troops from Syria as quickly as possible, just as Trump had promised before.
However, the White House’s statement is far away from the reality because the US military is de-facto building new military facilities in the country.
Some Syrian activists viewed Macron’s plan for “a new Syria” is a replica of what France tried to achieve during its occupation of Syria from 1923 to 1946 and doubted that such an outdated plan could succeed.
