Gen Dunford talks 'Kurdish challenge' in 30-day proposal for Trump

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — US General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the context of how Kurdish groups in Syria and a long-term US presence in Iraq would be discussed at the conclusion of a 30-day military review to combat violent extremism, due to be given to President Donald Trump by the end of the month.

“We’ll provide him [Trump] a full range of options. And when we provide him options, we’ll talk about the importance of our Turkish ally and making sure our plans are consistent with maintaining a strong alliance with Turkey,” Dunford said while at the Brookings Institute on Thursday, a think tank in Washington, DC.

“We’ll talk about the implications of the Kurdish challenge in the region, which is not isolated to one Kurdish group, but many Kurdish groups that have interests.”

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been described effective fighting force on the ground against ISIS in Syria. The SDF is primarily comprised of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).  Turkey views the YPG, and by extension the SDF, as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). 

Dunford explained that Trump will be given military and political options from the Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson regarding the extremist threat in Syria, along with the possible results of those options.

“We need to think about: How do the facts on the ground support the political process in Geneva that’s going to address the long-term stability and security inside of Syria. So the grievances of civil war have to be addressed. The safety and humanitarian assistance that needs to be provided to people have to be addressed, and then the multiple divergent stakeholders’ views need to be addressed.”

The fourth round of United Nations-brokered political peace talks for the nearly six-year-long Syrian Civil War began in Geneva on Thursday.

“And I think we all know, it’s about as complex an environment as you can be if you just like at it, you’ve got Iran there, you’ve got Russia there, you’ve got the Syrian regime obviously, Turkish concerns, Kurdish concerns, Arab concerns, Shiite concerns, Sunni concerns,” Dunford said. 

“So we do need to have a vision on how our military actions set conditions on the ground that actually then become the platform from which Secretary Tillerson goes to Geneva to come up with a plan for a political solution. So again I think all those variables have to be addressed.”

On the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated nearly 10,000 people from Russia and former Soviet States are fighting with extremists in Syria, Dunford gauged the worldwide scope of foreign fighters in the conflict.

“There's obviously the flow of foreign fighters, and we estimate that probably over 100, 120 countries have provided 45,000 foreign fighters just to Syria and to Iraq, alone. So that's one element that make it a trans-regional threat.”

Dunford was asked about discussions between the US, NATO, and the government of Iraq on the topic of the duration of a US military presence in Iraq, which began on March 20, 2003, on the premise of deposing Saddam Hussein and disarming Iraq of its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

"We have, as has NATO, begun a dialogue about a long-term commitment to grow the capacity, maintain a capacity, of Iraqi security forces, but no decisions have been made yet. And again, we'll bring options to the president, and he'll have an opportunity to choose those options, and that will then involve a dialogue with the Iraqi government.

“But yes, Iraq has begun to speak, and you've heard Prime Minister [Haider al-] Abadi speak about the international community continuing to support defense capacity building in NATO terms, and building partnership capacity in our terms. But no decisions have been made.”