Former Ambassador Robert Ford Claims US Will Lose Syria to Iran

According to a former U.S. ambassador to Syria, the Syrian government, as well as its allies (including Iran), shall eventually overcome U.S. efforts to secure their influence in the nation, and Kurdish fighters may pay for siding with Trump and The White House.

Robert Ford mentioned in an interview this Monday with the London-based Arabic-language magazine, Asharq Al-Awsat, that “Obama did not leave the Trump administration many options to achieve its goal” of defeating ISIS and controlling Iran’s foothold in the region. Ford served as an envoy to Syria under President Obama between 2011 and 2104. Iran and Russia have backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against several insurgents and jihadists who have tried to overtake him, however, the United States has supported an irregular coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is composed of mostly Kurds, yet includes other ethnic minorities and Arabs. While the group has experienced success recently in storming ISIS’s de facto capital of Raqqa, Ford claims that,”the game was finished” for U.S. plans to compete with Iran’s success within the country.

Ford predicts that in the future “the Iranian position will advance” within the next few years. Assad retains his control in the west, and Iran supporting pro-government forces, which he believes would ultimately push the U.S. to withdraw from eastern Syria.

In the interview, Ford stated that, “Assad won, I mean he’s the victor, or he thinks so,” which suggests that the leader is not likely to face charges in regards to war crime accusations by the west.

Ford has spoken candidly and truthfully about what he believes to be Washington’s errors in the Syrian crisis. He claims that he was opposed to Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to publicly call for the removal of Assad from power. Ford urges that he was aware that U.S. approval for the political opposition would encourage some groups to take arms against the government. It would be expected then that the U.S. military to engage in an Iraq-style intervention to help them, however, Ford did not believe that this would be carried out.