A Russian-American controversy over the interpretation of Resolution “2254” regarding the US military presence in Syria

The Russian Embassy in Washington announced its criticism of the statement of the International Coalition spokesperson, “Win ​​Maroto,” in which he said, “The presence of US forces in northeastern Syria is legal under Security Council Resolution No. 2254.”

On August 9, the Russian embassy commented on Twitter on a post by a spokesman for the International Coalition, saying that US forces are not legally authorized to stay in Syria.

The embassy called on General “Maroto” to read the document of Security Council Resolution 2254 again.

For his part, a researcher at the Middle East Institute, Charles Lister, in his tweet on Twitter, considered the statements of the Russian embassy in the United States as far-fetched.

He said: “Article 8 of Security Council Resolution 2254 issued in December 2015, stipulates fighting and eliminating the Islamic State and preventing it from re-forming itself in Syria.”

Lister added, “Moscow considers the American presence in northeastern Syria illegal and legitimate, so why does it agree to measures to prevent collisions and determine areas of influence with the international coalition forces while negotiating through its leaders with American officials on the need to maintain channels of communication to prevent unnecessary incidents between military personnel from occurring?”
the two countries.”

On the 28th of last July, the Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said that his country had held a dialogue with the US administration regarding the work of communication channels on the Syrian issue.

Last May, the US Department of Defense accused the Russian forces of violating the “prevention of collision” agreement between the two countries’ forces in Syria, while the Russian embassy in Washington responded, saying: “The US military presence in Syria is against international law.”

The American newspaper “POLITICO” reported on July 28, that the US forces will maintain 900 soldiers in Syria to provide support and advice to the Syrian Democratic Forces in their war against the “Islamic State” organization, according to the announcement of a senior official in the US President’s administration, Joe Biden.