In a phone interview with an American news agency, Mustafa explained that “President Al-Sharaa informed U.S. President Donald Trump during their meeting on Monday in Washington of Syria’s desire, intentions, and readiness to join the member states of the international coalition against ISIS,” which includes 89 countries. However, he emphasized that no agreement has been signed yet.
The Syrian Minister of Information indicated that Damascus’s joining has a primarily political nature, saying that “the political alliance differs from Operation Inherent Resolve,” referring to the U.S.-led military operations room against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Mustafa revealed that there is “coordination between the United States and the Syrian government at present in some cases related to operations directed against ISIS cells.” However, he confirmed, “Syria is not part of Operation Inherent Resolve that carries out the operations of this coalition.”
An American official, who requested anonymity, said, “Syria will join the international coalition against ISIS upon Al-Sharaa’s visit to Washington,” explaining that “during the visit, Syria announced it would join the international coalition, thus becoming the 90th member to collaborate in eradicating the last pockets of ISIS and halting the flow of foreign fighters.”
In an interview with an American newspaper, Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa addressed the new authorities’ confrontations with ISIS, saying, “We have been at war with the organization for 10 years, and it was a difficult and arduous war, and we did it without coordination with Western powers or any other country. Syria today is capable of bearing this responsibility.”
The Syrian president for the transitional phase considered that “the best solution is for the U.S. forces present in Syria to supervise the integration of the Syrian Democratic Forces into the government forces,” asserting that “the task of protecting Syrian territories should be the responsibility of the state.”
