The Trump administration is developing a new strategy for the war in Syria that would focus more heavily on pushing Iran's military and its proxy forces out of the country, NBC Newsreported on Tuesday, citing five people familiar with the plan.
The new strategy would not involve the US military directly targeting and killing Iranian soldiers or Iran's proxies, however, since that would violate the current US authorization for using force in Syria. The US military does have the right of self-defense under the authorization, and could strike the Iranian military if it felt threatened.
The plan would emphasize political and diplomatic efforts to force Iran out of Syria by squeezing it financially, according to NBC News. It would withhold reconstruction aid from areas where Iranian and Russian forces are present, according to three people familiar with the plan. The US would also impose sanctions on Russian and Iranian companies working on reconstruction in Syria.
"There's a real opportunity for the U.S. and its allies to make the Iranian regime pay for its continued occupation of Syria," said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank strongly opposed to the Iranian regime.
Driving Iran out of Syria would be one prong in an approach that would also involve continuing to destroy remaining pockets of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters and finding a political transition after the exit of both ISIS and Iran that does not call for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to step aside.
US defense officials worry the increased focus on Iran and the presence of both militaries in Syria could pull the US military closer into conflict.
The U.S. is not allowed to specifically expand the US military mission in Syria to directly target Iranian assets, according to legal experts, because that would put the U.S. on the wrong side of the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress in 2001. That authorization, which permitted the use of military force against ISIS in Syria, limits US action to targeting groups responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks and their associates. READ MORE
