Jeff SeldinVerified account

.@RepEliotEngel calls @POTUS policy on #Syria "scattershot" while also criticizing @BarackObama for inaction

"Nobody's doing the right thing" per @RepEliotEngel "I remain particularly baffled by the precipitous withdrawal that President trump announced late lats year that would have been an utter disaster. It would have emboldened #Assad #Russia & #Iran..."

"#Turkey has been playing a destabilizing role w/it's campaign against our allies, the #Kurds" adds @RepEliotEngel, calling @RTErdogan "another strongman with whom President Trump seems strangely enamored" "We need a serious policy..." for #Syria, per Engel

Amb Jeffrey also slams #Syria's Assad for continued use of chemical weapons and breathing life into #ISIS

"A crisis can break out at any moment," per Amb Jeffrey of #Syria situation "Not since the Yom Kippur War in 1973 have we had so many military forces in such close proximity in a combat environment"

"We want to...freeze the battlefield, which we've essentially done since last August" per Jeffrey, adding US working w/partners on step-by-step implementation of deescalation process

US and allies will continue "very broad economic & diplomatic pressure" on #Syria, if #Assad fails to move forward w/peace, per Amb Jeffrey

"We are prepared to maintain our policy of pressure, including full support for #Israel|i actions in defense of its' national security as long as required" per Amb Jeffrey re #Syria

"So far we cannot confirm it but we are watching it" per Amb James Jeffrey on reports of chemical weapons use by #Syria-#Assad in #Idlib

"We have pressed the #Russia|ns repeatedly...to return to the cease fire that te Russians agreed to" per Amb Jeffrey but that Russia pushing back, citing attacks by #alQaida-linked #HTS "We think that these attacks are not all that significant"

"I think that we're maintaining our credibility" per Amb Jeffrey, when questioned by @RepEliotEngel on #Kurds "The president was talking about American ground troops in his December decision...We never said that we would pull out our air deconfliction & essentially air presence"

"We were pursuing that track but then many of our coalition partners said we're not going to remain in or go in if there isn't some American presence," per Jeffrey, explaining decision to leave US residual force "We are in a good place w/our allies on the ground"

Is the current level of US troops in #Syria sufficient to achieve US goals there? "Yes" says US Special Rep for Syria James Jeffrey, assuring lawmakers US partners will be contributing more/stepping up

"#Iran has some thousands of its, they call them advisors, Quds Force elements under Qassem Soleimani" in #Syria, per Amb Jeffrey "They provide the leadership of a much larger number...It certainly would be in the 10,000 plus category of Iranian backed proxies from 3rd countries"

"What really concerns us more is #Iran|ian power projection systems - long range missile, drones, radar systems, air defense capabilities that you do not need to fight an internal civil war" per Amb Jeffrey

#Iran "power projection systems" in #Syria, "They're there to threaten Syria's neighbors beginning with #Israel" warns Amb Jeffrey

No enduring defeat for #ISIS in #Syria w/ #Assad in the way, per @StateDept's Jeffrey "While Assad's policies remain anything like what we have seen now, we will be able to sustain a ISIS-stabilized area in the northeast...but in the rest of the country we see ISIS quite active"

"They have a presence in #Idlib & they have a presence in the Southern Desert on the other side of the #Euphrates" per Amb Jeffrey "We have seen very little capability of the Assad regime to defeat ISIS militarily" "Assad's policy to his own population are the main accelerent"

#Syria #Assad's use of chemical weapons - "We're very very concerned about this" per @StateDept's Amb Jeffrey "At any time this regime is willing to consider chemical weapons to aid its ground attacks bcs it has the world's worst infantry fighting for it"

"Beyond chemical weapons, beyond refugees, a major military shift on the ground is not conducive to a settlement of this conflict" per Amb Jeffrey "There can be no military solution" re #Syria

"We haven't seen much success in the so-called #Astana talks" says Amb Jeffrey of #Russia's efforts to negotiate #Syria settlement "We continue to urge all parties to put their emphasis into the @UN effort"

"We'll probably, if experience is any guide, see several other pathetic, sorry & much broken cease fires that will eventually slow down the conflict" in #Syria, per Amb Jeffrey "That for us is what victory looks like in this awful war"

"We believe #Russia can play an important role in resolving this conflict just as it played an important role in making it worse" per Amb Jeffrey, calling that the reason for @SecPompeo's trip to #Sochi

Conflict in #Syria "is a dangerous one for #Russia...They're in a fairly precarious situation w/a real loser of an ally in #Assad" per Amb Jeffrey

"#Turkey on most issues related to #Syria is pretty closely aligned with us" says @StateDept Amb James Jeffrey "We are concerned abt the relationship btw Turkey & our #SDF partners in the northeast, which is why we're this discussion or negotiation w/the Turks on a safe zone"