Trump Admin Instructs US Forces to Take Appropriate Measures in Syria

President Donald Trump just gave the green light to strike Iran-backed forces in Syria, the Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday.

The paper quoted “senior Trump administration officials” who said the president was turning his attention to the militias backed by the government in Tehran.

“U.S. forces have been instructed to take all measures needed to protect American interests in Syria, including military measures, as part of an effort that comes after top officials in the Trump administration assessed that Iran is deliberately probing American weaknesses and reactions on the Syrian battlefield,” the Beacon reported.

The Iran-backed Shia groups — which include Hezbollah — have allegedly violated an agreement between the United States and Russia by having “initiated multiple encounters” with American forces. The agreement was meant to keep groups who are fighting the Islamic State group in Syria from fighting each other.

“That was very clearly a process of the Iranians and Hezbollah and [the] Syrian regime probing and testing our limits, and testing how much we were willing to do,” a senior official with the Trump administration told the paper. “In every case, it was a matter of them testing and probing, and us responding by defending ourselves.”

The forces involved in in the clashes, which include both Iran and Hezbollah, are “violating a de-confliction measure that had been worked out with the Russians,” the official added. “The forces violated the measure.”

This could mean the beginning of a major showdown with Iranian forces and their proxies…

Iran has long been a major supporter of the Syrian government and a strategic ally of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Assad is a Shia Muslim, as is the Iranian regime; given the recent internecine warfare between Sunni and Shia powers in the Middle East, Assad’s entrenchment as head of the Syrian regime is a major plus for the Iranians.

Two Iranian-made drones were shot down after they advanced on American forces in Syria during the month of June, according to the London Guardian.

In May, Foreign Policy reported that “U.S. F-16s hit a convoy of Iranian-armed Shiite fighters who failed to heed warnings to stay away from a base at al-Tanf, close to the Jordanian and Iraqi borders, which is used by American and British special forces to train local militias fighting the Islamic State.”

After that incident, U.S. Central Commandissued a statement saying that it “does not seek to fight Syrian regime, Russian or pro-regime forces partnered with them. The demonstrated hostile intent and actions of pro-regime forces near Coalition and partner forces in southern Syria, however, continue to concern us and the Coalition will take appropriate measures to protect our forces.”

That may be coming to an end, however; the Trump administration has increasingly been turning its attention to Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Tehran’s paramilitary force. Administration officials said they view the IRGC as being part of “every malignant protrusion of the Iranian regime,” one source said.

“They’re in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon,” they added.

The authorized strikes are part of what the Free Beacon termed a “broader pushback” against the Iranians in Syria.

“For the first time since the U.S. intervened into the Syrian conflict, American forces have been authorized to do take all measures to defend U.S. interests against Iranian provocations and aggression,” a source told the paper several weeks ago.

“This is part of a concrete strategy that has already been implemented in part, and is being bolstered every day, but very senior Trump officials. No more of watching U.S. forces get rolled in Syria, and also no more of thanking Iran after they seize our sailors in the Gulf.”

Clearly, there’s a different sheriff in town when it comes to Syria and Iran. Whether the Trump administration’s more aggressive tactics work is yet to be determined, but it will certainly be interesting to see how Tehran reacts to the pushback.

Source: Conservative Tribune

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