Baladi News - Journals
Russian officials have reportedly floated the idea of jointly running a U.S.-controlled corridor known as Al Tanf, located on the Iraq-Syria border near Jordan, where U.S. troops are garrisoned.
The American-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State, though, said they are not interested.
Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said the presence of American military bases on Syrian territory is a major unresolved issue for his forces.
“Let’s take Al Tanf, for example," he said Wednesday at a foreign policy briefing. “The United States established the so-called 55-km security zone around this community, and illegal armed groups continue their terrorist activity under its cover, making periodic sorties against the government forces.”
Gerasimov and other Russian officials reportedly suggested removing the security zone around Al Tanf and instead establishing joint Russian-American control over the key transit area there, one of three official border crossings between Syria and Iraq.
“However, the American partners left our proposal unanswered,” he said.
The Inherent Resolve coalition told Military Times that jointly running the corridor with Russian forces is not necessary.
“The coalition has stated from the beginning of establishing the 55-km deconfliction zone that we are not looking for, nor need any help in the area around Al Tanf," Army Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for the coalition, said. "The process is working and any interference only adds to an already complex battlefield environment.”
Source: The Military Times