AFP, Washington :
US President Donald Trump said Saturday a transition can soon begin to set conditions for lasting peace in Syria now that the end of the ISIS “caliphate is in sight” with the fall of Raqa.
The United States and its allies will support diplomatic negotiations “that end the violence, allow refugees to return safely home, and yield a political transition that honors the will of the Syrian people,” Trump said in a statement.
The declaration came four days after US-backed Kurdish-led forces recaptured Raqa, the capital of ISIS self-proclaimed caliphate and its last major stronghold in Syria. Trump said the entire city has been liberated from ISIS control, which he said marked a “critical breakthrough” in the global struggle against the terrorist group.
“With the liberation of ISIS’s capital and the vast majority of its territory, the end of the ISIS caliphate is in sight,” Trump said.
Since capturing it in 2014, ISIS had used Raqa as a base for planning and conducting attacks in the west, including the November 13, 2015 suicide bombings and mass shootings in Paris that killed 130 people.
French Foreign Minister Yves Le Drian celebrated ISIS’s defeat on Friday and declared “the crimes of the Bataclan have not gone unpunished,” referring to the concert venue where ISIS terrorists massacred 90 concertgoers.
US President Donald Trump said Saturday a transition can soon begin to set conditions for lasting peace in Syria now that the end of the ISIS “caliphate is in sight” with the fall of Raqa.
The United States and its allies will support diplomatic negotiations “that end the violence, allow refugees to return safely home, and yield a political transition that honors the will of the Syrian people,” Trump said in a statement.
The declaration came four days after US-backed Kurdish-led forces recaptured Raqa, the capital of ISIS self-proclaimed caliphate and its last major stronghold in Syria. Trump said the entire city has been liberated from ISIS control, which he said marked a “critical breakthrough” in the global struggle against the terrorist group.
“With the liberation of ISIS’s capital and the vast majority of its territory, the end of the ISIS caliphate is in sight,” Trump said.
Since capturing it in 2014, ISIS had used Raqa as a base for planning and conducting attacks in the west, including the November 13, 2015 suicide bombings and mass shootings in Paris that killed 130 people.
French Foreign Minister Yves Le Drian celebrated ISIS’s defeat on Friday and declared “the crimes of the Bataclan have not gone unpunished,” referring to the concert venue where ISIS terrorists massacred 90 concertgoers.
