According to a recent report by Al-Monitor, a senior U.S. military official has revealed that Russian and Iranian forces operating in Syria are actively working to compel the United States to withdraw its troops from the country.
The official disclosed that he has observed indications of covert collaboration between Russian military commanders in Syria and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to develop long-term strategies aimed at pressuring the U.S. into pulling out of the Middle Eastern country.
The anonymous official told the publication, "there's a confluence of interests between those three groups, the Iranians, the Russians, and the Syrians. I see evidence of operational-level planning between mid-level Quds Force leadership that's operating in Syria and Russian forces that are operating in Syria.”
The unnamed official further stated “frankly, the same sorts of things that we would do with our partners in the face of something we were trying to accomplish. We see them doing that on their side, as they try to think about how they sync the different things that different arms of them are doing in order to put that pressure on us.”
Within the past two years, there has been a surge in attacks on U.S. bases by militias affiliated with Iran in Syria. One tranche of drone strikes in late March of this year killed a U.S. military contractor and wounded 11 U.S. service members.
This last year, the United States has bolstered its presence in Syria, especially in the country's northeastern region.
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