Trump decided to leave troops in Syria after conversations about oil, officials say - The Washington Post

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Oct. 25 that the United States would maintain a ‘reduced presence’ in Syria, in a partial reversal of President Trump’s withdrawal.

President Trump was persuaded to leave at least several hundred troops behind in Syria only when he was told that his decision to pull them out would risk control of oil fields in the country’s east, according to U.S. officials.

Trump had rejected arguments that withdrawing U.S. forces would benefit American adversaries, while endangering civilians and Kurdish allies, but he tweeted Thursday that “we will NEVER let a reconstituted ISIS have those fields.”

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper confirmed on Friday that troops would remain in eastern Syria to prevent the oil fields from being retaken by the Islamic State.

Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Esper said that military planners were “considering how we might reposition forces in the areas” and that the deployment “would include some mechanized forces” such as tanks or other armored vehicles and support personnel.

A U.S. official with knowledge of operations in Syria said that Trump’s interest in the oil provided an opportunity for the Pentagon, which was unhappy with the initial decision, to temper his insistence on a full withdrawal and allow counterterrorism operations and airspace control to continue.

“This is like feeding a baby its medicine in yogurt or applesauce,” said the official, one of several who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal U.S. deliberations.

One senior NATO diplomat said Esper offered few details about the new deployment during the NATO meeting.

“He’s trying to elaborate on Trump’s intuitions,” the diplomat said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door discussions. “It’s hard.”

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally who had called the withdrawal decision a major blunder, pressed the case for controlling the oil fields during a Thursday lunch with the president.

“He sees the benefit … of controlling the oil as part of a counter-ISIS strategy,” Graham said in an interview.

Trump has declared the militant caliphate “100 percent” defeated, although U.S. officials have said that thousands of Islamic State fighters remain in Syria.

The eastern oil fields in Deir al-Zour province, where most of Syria’s relatively small and low-quality reserves are located, were once the primary source of income for the militants, who sold the oil to the Syrian government, Turkey and, reportedly, even to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Massive U.S. and coalition air bombardments, beginning in 2015, drove the Islamic State either underground or away from the area. Since then, the SDF has controlled it, in the presence of about 200 U.S. troops. According to people familiar with the operations, the SDF has continued selling the oil on the black market — largely to the Syrian government.

The desert region is far from major Kurdish areas in Syria, which lie along the northern border. Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish civilians have been driven south, and east into Iraq, by Turkish troops and their Syrian Arab allies that have pushed at least 20 miles into Syria.

Another U.S. official said the latest plan calls for several hundred troops, but “less than a battalion,” spread across the region at several locations between the towns of Hasakah and Deir al-Zour. A battalion in most U.S. military units includes 800 to 1,000 troops.

The official said these forces would be in addition to those already there, with the result conceivably approaching the 1,000 Trump initially ordered withdrawn.

The introduction of tanks or Bradley Fighting Vehicles — which flanked Trump during his July 4 speech in Washington and cost less to operate — are a “symbolic move with tactical benefits,” the official said.

Among those benefits are long-range optics that can help detect enemy forces and the ability to maneuver over uneven terrain that other vehicles struggle with, the official said. But above all, they show firepower, the official said. There are about 12 to 15 tanks or Bradleys in each company possessing them.

Trump announced the U.S. pullout from Syria after yielding to the Turkish invasion. Turkey had demanded that the SDF, whose Kurdish leaders it considers terrorists allied with Kurdish separatists in Turkey, abandon the border region.

But the northern rim has also been the main ground supply route for U.S. forces in Syria, including those in the Deir al-Zour province where they are now to remain to guard Syria’s largest oil field.

The area is remote and inaccessible except by three border crossings from Iraq, two of which are controlled by Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq. The main crossing at Fishkhabour is in the far northeast corner of Syria, inside an area now claimed for the Syrian government under an agreement signed this week by Turkey and Russia, Assad’s main ally.

One U.S. official said that for now, the military has continued to run ground resupply convoys into Syria from Iraq through the Fishkhabour crossing this week, deconflicting with Russian forces as necessary.

Access to any of the crossings also requires permission from the government of Iraq, which last week said that U.S. forces being evacuated there from Syria could only remain for four weeks.

Even if the border crossings could be negotiated with Russia, Syria, Iraq and the militias — depending on who is in charge at a given time and place — road access to the scattered and relatively small U.S. outposts around the main Omar oil field remains insecure and difficult along desert tracks and dirt roads, according to several people with knowledge of the area.

While larger U.S. installations — many now abandoned — had been clustered in Kurdish areas closer to the Turkish border, the American presence in the more sparsely populated areas to the south has been light, said Nicholas A. Heras, a scholar who tracks Syria at the Center for a New American Security. Maintaining and protecting troops in isolated areas of Deir al-Zour will be a challenge, he said.

“The United States is dependent on the SDF, and the devil will be in the details” of any arrangement, Heras said.

If the United States cannot maintain a land route into Syria, it may have to expand a small airfield in the Deir al-Zour region or a base at Rmeilan, just south of the Turkish expansion area in northeast Syria. The base was the second-largest U.S. facility after the border town of Kobane, now occupied by Russian and other forces, and the only one capable of receiving large cargo aircraft, Heras said.

The U.S. mission shift to protecting oil fields could also raise issues in Congress.

The Pentagon operates in Syria under the long-standing Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed by lawmakers in the wake of terrorist attacks in September 2001 to target “nations, organizations, or persons” who were involved and to prevent “future acts of international terrorism.”

While the Obama and Trump administrations have argued that the authorization allows action against the Islamic State, the Syrian regime also wants the oil fields. In February 2018, U.S. forces used airstrikes and artillery to kill more than 100 advancing Russian mercenaries and Syrian forces advancing in the area after commanders determined that U.S. troops on the ground there were in danger.

Esper’s announcement in Brussels capped two days of discussions at NATO headquarters that were dominated by anger directed at Turkey, a member of the alliance, for invading Syria.

Turkey’s agreement with Russia to jointly send in troops to the region to fill the vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal has also caused heartburn at NATO. The alliance spends much of its energy countering threats from the Kremlin, and many fear the increased instability in Syria has been a gift to Russia.

“Recent events in Syria gave bonuses to the Russian side, which is neither in Turkey’s nor in NATO’s interest,” said Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis expressed similar views. “We are not very enthusiastic when we see Russians on former U.S. bases,” he said. “The alliance should not give gifts to a strategic competitor.”

But NATO has little recourse to take action against Turkey. The organization’s rules do not allow members to be kicked out, nor is it a venue for sanctions to be imposed. Individual members have broad power to put holds on decisions. And many NATO members still calculate that, even though Turkey can be a frustrating ally, their own security is still improved with it inside.

Birnbaum reported from Brussels. Josh Dawsey in Washington contributed to this report.

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2019-10-26 04:22:02Z
52780419454175

Trump decided to leave troops in Syria after conversations about oil, officials say - The Washington Post

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Oct. 25 that the United States would maintain a ‘reduced presence’ in Syria, in a partial reversal of President Trump’s withdrawal.

President Trump was persuaded to leave at least several hundred troops behind in Syria only when he was told that his decision to pull them out would risk control of oil fields in the country’s east, according to U.S. officials.

Trump had rejected arguments that withdrawing U.S. forces would benefit American adversaries, while endangering civilians and Kurdish allies, but he tweeted Thursday that “we will NEVER let a reconstituted ISIS have those fields.”

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper confirmed on Friday that troops would remain in eastern Syria to prevent the oil fields from being retaken by the Islamic State.

Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Esper said that military planners were “considering how we might reposition forces in the areas” and that the deployment “would include some mechanized forces” such as tanks or other armored vehicles and support personnel.

A U.S. official with knowledge of operations in Syria said that Trump’s interest in the oil provided an opportunity for the Pentagon, which was unhappy with the initial decision, to temper his insistence on a full withdrawal and allow counterterrorism operations and airspace control to continue.

“This is like feeding a baby its medicine in yogurt or applesauce,” said the official, one of several who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal U.S. deliberations.

One senior NATO diplomat said Esper offered few details about the new deployment during the NATO meeting.

“He’s trying to elaborate on Trump’s intuitions,” the diplomat said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door discussions. “It’s hard.”

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally who had called the withdrawal decision a major blunder, pressed the case for controlling the oil fields during a Thursday lunch with the president.

“He sees the benefit … of controlling the oil as part of a counter-ISIS strategy,” Graham said in an interview.

Trump has declared the militant caliphate “100 percent” defeated, although U.S. officials have said that thousands of Islamic State fighters remain in Syria.

The eastern oil fields in Deir al-Zour province, where most of Syria’s relatively small and low-quality reserves are located, were once the primary source of income for the militants, who sold the oil to the Syrian government, Turkey and, reportedly, even to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Massive U.S. and coalition air bombardments, beginning in 2015, drove the Islamic State either underground or away from the area. Since then, the SDF has controlled it, in the presence of about 200 U.S. troops. According to people familiar with the operations, the SDF has continued selling the oil on the black market — largely to the Syrian government.

The desert region is far from major Kurdish areas in Syria, which lie along the northern border. Hundreds of thousands of Kurdish civilians have been driven south, and east into Iraq, by Turkish troops and their Syrian Arab allies that have pushed at least 20 miles into Syria.

Another U.S. official said the latest plan calls for several hundred troops, but “less than a battalion,” spread across the region at several locations between the towns of Hasakah and Deir al-Zour. A battalion in most U.S. military units includes 800 to 1,000 troops.

The official said these forces would be in addition to those already there, with the result conceivably approaching the 1,000 Trump initially ordered withdrawn.

The introduction of tanks or Bradley Fighting Vehicles — which flanked Trump during his July 4 speech in Washington and cost less to operate — are a “symbolic move with tactical benefits,” the official said.

Among those benefits are long-range optics that can help detect enemy forces and the ability to maneuver over uneven terrain that other vehicles struggle with, the official said. But above all, they show firepower, the official said. There are about 12 to 15 tanks or Bradleys in each company possessing them.

Trump announced the U.S. pullout from Syria after yielding to the Turkish invasion. Turkey had demanded that the SDF, whose Kurdish leaders it considers terrorists allied with Kurdish separatists in Turkey, abandon the border region.

But the northern rim has also been the main ground supply route for U.S. forces in Syria, including those in the Deir al-Zour province where they are now to remain to guard Syria’s largest oil field.

The area is remote and inaccessible except by three border crossings from Iraq, two of which are controlled by Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq. The main crossing at Fishkhabour is in the far northeast corner of Syria, inside an area now claimed for the Syrian government under an agreement signed this week by Turkey and Russia, Assad’s main ally.

One U.S. official said that for now, the military has continued to run ground resupply convoys into Syria from Iraq through the Fishkhabour crossing this week, deconflicting with Russian forces as necessary.

Access to any of the crossings also requires permission from the government of Iraq, which last week said that U.S. forces being evacuated there from Syria could only remain for four weeks.

Even if the border crossings could be negotiated with Russia, Syria, Iraq and the militias — depending on who is in charge at a given time and place — road access to the scattered and relatively small U.S. outposts around the main Omar oil field remains insecure and difficult along desert tracks and dirt roads, according to several people with knowledge of the area.

While larger U.S. installations — many now abandoned — had been clustered in Kurdish areas closer to the Turkish border, the American presence in the more sparsely populated areas to the south has been light, said Nicholas A. Heras, a scholar who tracks Syria at the Center for a New American Security. Maintaining and protecting troops in isolated areas of Deir al-Zour will be a challenge, he said.

“The United States is dependent on the SDF, and the devil will be in the details” of any arrangement, Heras said.

If the United States cannot maintain a land route into Syria, it may have to expand a small airfield in the Deir al-Zour region or a base at Rmeilan, just south of the Turkish expansion area in northeast Syria. The base was the second-largest U.S. facility after the border town of Kobane, now occupied by Russian and other forces, and the only one capable of receiving large cargo aircraft, Heras said.

The U.S. mission shift to protecting oil fields could also raise issues in Congress.

The Pentagon operates in Syria under the long-standing Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed by lawmakers in the wake of terrorist attacks in September 2001 to target “nations, organizations, or persons” who were involved and to prevent “future acts of international terrorism.”

While the Obama and Trump administrations have argued that the authorization allows action against the Islamic State, the Syrian regime also wants the oil fields. In February 2018, U.S. forces used airstrikes and artillery to kill more than 100 advancing Russian mercenaries and Syrian forces advancing in the area after commanders determined that U.S. troops on the ground there were in danger.

Esper’s announcement in Brussels capped two days of discussions at NATO headquarters that were dominated by anger directed at Turkey, a member of the alliance, for invading Syria.

Turkey’s agreement with Russia to jointly send in troops to the region to fill the vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal has also caused heartburn at NATO. The alliance spends much of its energy countering threats from the Kremlin, and many fear the increased instability in Syria has been a gift to Russia.

“Recent events in Syria gave bonuses to the Russian side, which is neither in Turkey’s nor in NATO’s interest,” said Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis expressed similar views. “We are not very enthusiastic when we see Russians on former U.S. bases,” he said. “The alliance should not give gifts to a strategic competitor.”

But NATO has little recourse to take action against Turkey. The organization’s rules do not allow members to be kicked out, nor is it a venue for sanctions to be imposed. Individual members have broad power to put holds on decisions. And many NATO members still calculate that, even though Turkey can be a frustrating ally, their own security is still improved with it inside.

Birnbaum reported from Brussels. Josh Dawsey in Washington contributed to this report.

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Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2019-10-26 03:56:50Z
52780419454175

US to ban American flights to all Cuban cities except Havana - Fox News

The Trump administration on Friday said it will ban U.S. flights to all Cuban destinations except Havana. The ban will become effective in December.

"This action will prevent the [Raul] Castro regime from profiting from U.S. air travel and using the revenues to repress the Cuban people," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

Another stated reason for the suspended flights is to prevent American tourism in Cuba, which is currently banned under U.S. law. In June, the State Department took it a step further and prohibited cruise ships from making stops there.

AMERICAN HELD ALMOST A YEAR IN RUSSIA ON SPY CHARGES SAYS HE'S 'MR. BEAN, NOT JAMES BOND'

Opponents of the ban said it will make it more difficult for Cuban-Americans to visit family who live far from Havana and travel by road.

The Trump administration has taken steps in recent months to starve cash from the Cuban government, which in addition to repressing its own citizens is heavily allied with Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

BOY, 12, DIES ON CRUISE IN MEDITERRANEAN, PARENTS QUARANTINED

A week ago, the Commerce Department took direct aim at Cuba’s tourism industry by restricting airlines’ abilities to lease aircraft. It also said the U.S. will expand sanctions to include more foreign goods that are made of American content.

“The Cuban regime's disregard for human rights and use of violence to prop up the former Maduro regime are responsible for the ongoing crises in Cuba and Venezuela,” Pompeo said last month as he instituted a travel ban on the family of communist party leader Raul Castro.

The U.S. government has said around 20,000 Cuban troops and agents have been working in Venezuela to protect Maduro’s government.

“Castro is complicit in undermining Venezuela’s democracy and triggering the hemisphere’s largest humanitarian crisis, forcing 15 percent of the Venezuelan population to flee the country and precipitating a food shortage and health crisis of unprecedented scale in this region,” Pompeo said.

Trump in a speech at the United Nations last month called the Venezuelan leader a “Cuban puppet.”

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“The dictator Maduro is a Cuban puppet, protected by Cuban bodyguards, hiding from his own people, while Cubans plunder Venezuela’s oil wealth to sustain its own corrupt communist rule,” Trump said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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2019-10-26 01:53:50Z
52780419308477

Circus bear mauls Russian trainer in front of horrified onlookers; investigation launched - Fox News

Onlookers at a Russian circus were horrified Wednesday when a 660-pound brown bear viciously attacked its handler before turning its attention to the audience, prompting officials to launch a criminal investigation.

Ruslan Solodyuk was performing with Yashka the bear in Olonets as part of an act where he orders the 16-year-old bear to stand on its two back legs and push around a wheelbarrow.

KIM JONG UN CHANNELS INNER PUTIN, RIDES WHITE HORSE ON SACRED MOUNTAIN IN EQUINE PROPAGANDA SHOOT

In the video taken by one spectator, the act seems to be going well until the large brown bear turns on Solodiuk and slams him to the ground while biting his arm. Another trainer attempts to intervene by kicking the animal repeatedly.

Local media reported that the bear then ventured into the audience area, just a few feet away, before it was subdued with an electric shocker.

Ruslan Solodyuk was performing with Yashka the bear in Olonets as apart of an act when the bear turned on him and attacked.  (Galina Guryeva)

FOURTH MONTANA HUNTER ATTACKED BY A GRIZZLY BEAR IN 10 DAYS

Neither the trainer nor the bear were seriously injured.

Solodyuk told the Russian news source Daily Storm that he is working with police following Thursday’s attack and that he has never experienced this in all his years working with Yashka. He attributed it to the bear being irritated.

“[Yashka] is huge (weighs [660 pounds]), sick and old - 16 years old,” a translation of his statement to the outlet read. “The animal occasionally hurts joints ... In spring and autumn, just like in people, Yasha’s problems worsen. This time the bear crouched on the stage and, apparently, felt pain.”

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He said that the bear was on a leash and wore a muzzle at the time of the attack.

Solodyuk said he does not work for the circus directly and was hired for the show after finding the contracts online. He does not agree with the circus administrators who say it was the flash photography that led to the attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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2019-10-25 12:12:57Z
52780418289188

Erdogan calls on US to hand over Kurdish commander Mazloum Abdi - Al Jazeera English

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded the United States hand over the commander of Kurdish-led forces in Syria, in a sharp rebuke of Washington's call for negotiations with the Syrian Kurds. 

The call for Mazloum Abdi's extradition on Thursday came after US President Donald Trump, in a letter to Erdogan on October 11, said the Kurdish commander was "willing to negotiate" with the Turkish president and "make concessions that they would have never made in the past". 

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Abdi, also known as Ferhat Abdi Sahin and Mazloum Kobane, heads the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Washington's main Syrian ally in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS).

Ankara, however, views the group as "terrorists" linked to Kurdish separatists inside Turkey and launched a military push to drive the fighters away from its border with Syria. 

Speaking to state-run TRT on Thursday night, Erdogan said he instructed his justice minister to take the "necessary steps" for Abdi's extradition. 

"With the US, we have an extradition agreement. The US should hand this man to us," he said. 

 Recep Tayyip Erodgan called for Abdi's extradition in an interview with TRT [Mustafa Kamaci/Anadolu]

Erdogan's remarks came amid calls by US legislators on the Trump administration to fast track a visa for Abdi to travel to Washington DC and brief the Congress on the situation in northeast Syria. 

In a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, the senators said "it would be very beneficial for Congress and the administration to hear directly from the military leadership of the SDF about the situation on the ground and the fight against ISIS.

"Therefore, should General Mazloum Kobani Abdi - who is responsible for everyday operations against ISIS - request to visit the United States, we ask you to expedite his visa and issue any applicable waiver that might be required."

Meanwhile, Abdi told a news conference in Kurdish-led Qamishli that the SDF was in talks with both Russia and the US to protect the Kurdish people against the Turkish assault, launched on October 9 but now suspended in truces brokered separately by Washington and Moscow. 

The fighting has killed scores of people on both sides of the border and displaced nearly 180,000 people inside Syria. 

"Our reservations are related to the protection of our people. We don't accept that our people and our cities remain without protection," Abdi said on Thursday. 

Trump says US 'never agreed' to protect Syria's Kurds (2:15)

Under the ceasefire deals, the SDF agreed to withdraw from a so-called "safe-zone" 30km deep into Syrian territory. Ankara wants to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees it hosts on its soil in this area.

Turkey now controls an area in northern Syria the length of 120km (75 miles) east of the Euphrates River along the border between the two countries, its Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Friday.

On Thursday, Abdi said his militia was holding discussions with Washington on keeping US forces in the region, as well as regaining control over positions lost since the Turkish military operation began.

The Kurds blame a decision by the US to pull its forces out of Syria for Ankara's offensive and have turned to Damascas and Moscow, Washington's foes, to deploy troops to help fend off the Turkish assault. Since then, Trump said some US soldiers will remain in parts of northeast Syria to secure oilfields there. 

"There was a recent call with President Trump," said Abdi. "And he confirmed to me that they [US troops] will stay here for a long time and that their partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces will continue for a long time. We are now discussing with the Americans how to regain positions in some areas of northeast Syria."

In a Twitter post on Thursday, Trump confirmed speaking to Abdi.  

I really enjoyed my conversation with General @MazloumAbdi. He appreciates what we have done, and I appreciate what the Kurds have done. Perhaps it is time for the Kurds to start heading to the Oil Region!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2019

"He appreciates what we have done, and I appreciate what the Turks have done," he said, calling on the Kurds to start heading to the "Oil Region". 

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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2019-10-25 12:08:00Z
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US to deploy more troops to eastern Syria to secure oilfields - Al Jazeera English

The United States will station additional forces in eastern Syria to protect oilfields in another policy shift that one former senior American official called a "shocking ignorance" of history and geography.

The planned reinforcement will take place in coordination with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to prevent the oilfields from falling into the hands of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), a Pentagon statement said.

No details were provided on how many or what kind of forces would be sent, or whether decisions on those details have been made.

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"The US is committed to reinforcing our position, in coordination with our SDF partners, in northeast Syria with additional military assets to prevent those oilfields from falling back into the hands of ISIS or other destabilising actors," it added.

Earlier on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said on social media the US "will never let a reconstituted ISIS have those fields".

The latest announcement, however, contradicts Trump's controversial decision earlier this month to withdraw forces from northeast Syria, which paved the way for Turkey's military operation in the area.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Joshua Landis, a Middle East expert at the University of Oklahoma, said the announcement was "emblematic of the chaos that has set in in the American foreign policy process".

"It is in free-fall and the president is going back and forth," Landis said. "This doesn't really make much sense."

The new deployment could mean US forces would be like "sitting ducks" being stationed in an area, in which the borders are guarded by Russian and Syrian troops, he added.

"Who is going to safeguard them? The Kurds will have nothing to do with America. They have now made a deal with the Assad government. The whole thing makes no sense."

Marwan Kabalan from the Arab Center for Research told Al Jazeera the latest move to re-deploy forces to Syria reflects the contradictions in US foreign policy.

"US policy on Syria has been so inconsistent, it's very difficult to predict whether the United States will stay or leave," Kabalan said.

"The conflict is in Washington between President Trump and the foreign policy establishment, particularly the Pentagon. His eyes have always been on the upcoming election, he wants to boost support from his political base."   

'Shocking ignorance' 

Brett McGurk, the top US official leading Trump's anti-ISIL campaign until January, also criticised the latest shift in a social media post.

"The president of the United States of America appears to be calling for a mass migration of Kurds to the desert where they can resettle atop a tiny oilfield. Shocking ignorance of history, geography, law, American values, human decency, and honour."

Trump had justified his earlier decision to withdraw US forces from Syria, saying he sought to bring about 1,000 troops home and end American involvement there.

Trump said previously a "small number" of US troops would remain in Syria to secure the oilfields. An American official told the Washington Post earlier this week a proposal calls for 200 US troops to remain in the area. 

News reports from Newsweek and US broadcaster Fox said a new deployment may include dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers.

The Turkish assault on northeastern Syria and the US-allied Kurdish forces has been halted after the US brokered a ceasefire.

Ankara also brokered a deal with Russia that saw the evacuation of Kurdish forces from a vast area along Syria's border with Turkey.

Is Russia the new power broker in Middle East?

How about the oil?

The Kurdish forces seized control of small oil fields in northeastern Hassakeh province after Syrian government troops pulled out of most of the Kurdish-majority regions in 2012 to fight rebels elsewhere.

After expelling ISIL from southeastern Syria in 2018, the Kurds seized control of the more profitable oil fields in Deir Az Zor province.

A quiet arrangement has existed between the Kurds and the Syrian government, whereby Damascus buys the surplus through middlemen in a profitable smuggling operation that has continued despite political differences. The Kurdish-led administration sells crude oil to private refiners, who use primitive homemade refineries to process fuel and diesel and sell it back to the administration.

The SDF currently sells Syria's oil for about $30 per barrel.

The oil was expected to be a bargaining chip for the Kurds to negotiate a deal with the Syrian government, which unsuccessfully tried to reach the oil fields to retake them from ISIL. With Trump saying he plans to keep forces to secure the oil, it seems the oil will continue to be used for leverage - with Moscow and Damascus.

McGurk said on Monday: "Oil, like it or not, is owned by the Syrian state. Maybe there are new lawyers, but it was just illegal for an American company to go and seize and exploit these assets."

Before the war, Syria produced about 350,000 barrels per day, exporting more than half of it. Most of that oil came from eastern Syria. Foreign companies, including Total, Shell, and Conoco, all left Syria after the war began more than eight years ago.

US Senator Lindsey Graham said after meeting with Trump on Thursday that he urged him to stay engaged in Syria.

"If you can find a way to secure the oil fields from Iran and ISIS, that's in our national security interest," Graham said.

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2019-10-25 11:44:00Z
52780417512262

Boeing promises to change 737 Max software as Indonesia releases Lion Air crash report - CNN

The promise was part of Boeing's lengthy response to the final report from Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee into last year's crash of a Lion Air flight. Investigators faulted the poor design of the Max and a lack of regulatory oversight from the US Federal Aviation Administration, along with errors by flight crews.

The agency plans to make the report public Friday, roughly a year after the 737 Max 8 plane crashed into the Java Sea. All 189 people on board died. Ahead of the report's publication, investigators held a press conference in Jakarta.

A summary of the report blames the crash on faulty "assumptions" made during the design and certification of the 737 Max about how pilots would respond to malfunctions by the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). CNN saw a presentation of the summary earlier this week. A press release detailing the report's findings was also released Friday.

MCAS lowers the nose of the plane when it receives information that the aircraft is flying too slowly or steeply, and at risk of stalling. The system was vulnerable because it relied on a single angle of attack (AOA) sensor, investigators said.

The AOA sensor on the doomed Lion Air plane experienced issues on earlier flights and was replaced. But the airline's maintenance crews and pilots couldn't identify the problem because one of the aircraft's safety features — the AOA Disagree alert — was not "correctly enabled during Boeing 737-8 (Max) development," they said.

Boeing has admitted this feature that should have been standard was instead enabled only for airlines that purchased an optional upgrade, and has said that it will fix the problem.

Problems not properly logged

Investigators also said that the crew on the flight before the one that crashed experienced problems, but deactivated the MCAS system and flew the plane to its destination. But that flight crew did not report all of the issues they experienced to the maintenance crew.

Investigators also concluded that issues with "flight crew communication" and "distractions" were contributing factors to the crash, according to the summary.

The 737 Max has been grounded since March after a 737 Max operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed. That flight shared similarities with the fatal Lion Air flight. The two crashes killed 346 people.

Boeing (BA) on Friday said that it has been working to update its MCAS system in the wake of those crashes.

Going forward, Boeing said, its MCAS system will compare information from two AOA sensors on the plane before it activates, "adding a new layer of protection." The redesign also means that a pilot experiencing an MCAS malfunction will be able to pull back on the control column and deactivate the system. Pilots on both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines fatal flights struggled to override the planes' automatic systems before crashing, according to preliminary reports.

Boeing also said it is "updating crew manuals and pilot training, designed to ensure every pilot has all of the information they need to fly the 737 MAX safely."

Boeing has continued to build the 737 Max in order to try to meet a backlog of more than 4,000 orders for the plane that it has on the books. But it won't get most of the revenue from sales of the plane until delivery.

It's not clear when the plane will return to the skies: The US Federal Aviation Administration said last week that it's following a "thorough process, not a prescribed timeline, for returning the Boeing 737 Max to passenger service." Decisions made by the agency and the aircraft makers have come under scrutiny in multiple investigations and reviews in the months since the planes crashed.

On Friday, the FAA said that its "first priority is always safety" and that the Indonesian committee's accident report on Lion Air "is a sober reminder to us of the importance of that mission."

And Lion Air called the crash an "unthinkable tragedy and one that the relatives and friends of those who were lost continue to mourn."

"It is essential to determine the root cause and contributing factors to the accident and take immediate corrective actions to ensure that an accident like this one never happens again," the airline said in a statement on Friday.

-— CNN's Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/25/business/lion-air-crash-boeing-737-max/index.html

2019-10-25 11:04:00Z
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