Former U.S. National Security Adviser Ambassador John Bolton spoke to Medya Haber TV journalist Eem Kansoy, offering his assessment on key regional developments.
Bolton underlined that al-Jolani (Ahmed al-Sharaa) has advanced with the support of Turkey, shared a highly notable evaluation regarding Tom Barrack, and emphasized the major victories achieved by the Kurds in the fight against ISIS.
Bolton added: “I’m very concerned about the way things are developing in Eastern Syria. I don’t think that al-Sharaa has proven he has renounced his terrorist background, his affiliation with what used to be called the Al-Nusra Front. He obviously has the strong support of Turkey.
He wouldn’t be in power in Damascus without Turkish supply and Turkish aid. So I’m very worried that there may be an al-Sharia agenda at work, but there may be a Turkish agenda at work. Well, I’m very worried.”
Bolton continued: “I don’t think Trump understands the role that the SDF and Kurdish fighters played in eliminating the ISIS territorial caliphate, or that they’ve been playing in guarding these thousands of ISIS prisoners. In fact, the idea of taking the ISIS prisoners into Iraq seems to me to be a step leading to saying that that role for the SDF no longer applies. I mean, I personally heard several efforts by Erdoğan to persuade Trump to pull all US forces out and essentially abandon the SDF.
It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen under the Biden administration. But I think Kurds are right to worry that there aren’t enough people around Trump in the White House today explaining the critical role that the SDF played in the defeat of ISIS and the role it’s continued to play to help stabilize significant parts of Syria and prevent both Turkish expansionism and the terrorists from coming back.”
Bolton said that “Trump has delegated a lot of responsibility to Barak in his role, first as ambassador to Turkey, but also a special representative for Syria. I’m worried that although the Kurds and SDF have many friends in the United States who understand the role that they played in the defeat of ISIS, that is just something Barak didn’t experience and he’s not reflecting.
I don’t think that at the moment he’s getting a lot of oversight by the State Department and I don’t think Trump is even paying much attention. So it’s a very risky period. I think it’s important for Kurdish people to understand that this is a dangerous moment with a lot of pieces in play and certainly with respect to the United States that the number of friends that the Kurds have is quite large, many in Congress, as I said, and I think it’s important to be very active diplomatically in terms of Kurdish Americans talking to their elected representatives so that people know that a lot is at stake here and developments could move very swiftly if we’re not prepared for them.”