| | | Date: Dec 20, 2018 | | Source: The Daily Star |  |  |  |
| | France to stay in Syria after US troops ordered home: minister | Agence France Presse
PARIS: France will maintain its participation in the coalition fighting Daesh (ISIS) forces in Syria, government officials said Thursday after President Donald Trump surprised Washington's allies by ordering U.S. troops home.
"For now of course we remain in Syria," France's European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said on CNews television, adding "the fight against terrorism is not over."
"It's true that the coalition has made significant progress in Syria, but this fight continues, and we will continue it," she said.
France has stationed fighter jets in Jordan and artillery along the Syrian border in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition, as well as an undisclosed number of special forces on the ground.
On Wednesday Trump said in a Twitter video that "We've won against ISIS," and that it was time to bring the roughly 2,000 U.S. soldiers home.
It was a stunning reversal of a U.S. policy which had vowed its support for Kurdish allies who have been key fighters against Daesh forces in Syria.
Its allies have warned that despite losing most of the territory it once controlled during the bloody Syrian civil war, the Daesh threat has not been totally eradicated.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly said on Twitter Thursday that the group "has not been wiped of the map, nor have its roots."
"We must definitively defeat the last pockets of this terrorist organization," she said. |
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