While US President Donald Trump has refrained from commenting on the Syrian issue since last January, his Vice President J.D. Vance strongly criticized the new administration in Damascus.
In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, he said that his country "will not deploy American forces in Syria, but we have a lot we can do diplomatically and economically to protect minorities there."
He also said that the US administration must "remember who it is dealing with in Syria and ensure the protection of these historic communities," referring to the Christian and Druze minorities.
He added that Washington is speaking with its allies and working behind the scenes to encourage the Syrian administration (which he described as extremist) to protect Christian, Druze, and other minorities.
"The Invasion of Iraq"
Furthermore, he stated that "the invasion of Iraq destroyed one of the greatest Christian communities in the world, regardless of our view of the war, and therefore we must not allow that to happen again," he said.
In late January, Trump stated that Syria had enough chaos, stating that his country should not get involved in it, avoiding commenting on whether he would withdraw US forces from it.
However, he later reaffirmed that he would not withdraw his country's forces from Syrian territory at this time.
Meanwhile, US officials later revealed that US intelligence cooperated with the new Syrian administration to gather information on ISIS.
It is worth noting that Washington has not yet fully lifted the sanctions it previously imposed on Syria, imposed during the reign of former President Bashar al-Assad, due to the violations and killings committed against his opponents since 2011.
However, it has eased some of those sanctions on the energy sector and a number of banks.
Meanwhile, approximately 2,000 US troops remain deployed inside Syria, according to the latest Pentagon announcement from last December (2024).
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