The United States announced on Sunday that it will not withdraw its forces from Syria until it achieves its goals there.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley listed three aims for the US: ensuring that chemical weapons are not used in any way that pose a risk to US interests, that ISIS is defeated and that there is a good vantage point to watch what Iran is doing.
It is our goal “to see American troops come home, but we are not going to leave until we know we have accomplished those things,” Haley told Fox News Sunday.
Asked about US-Russia relations, Haley said ties were “very strained” but that Washington still hoped for a better relationship.
She revealed that the US was preparing a new sanctions package against Russia over its support for the Syrian regime. They will be revealed on Monday.
The US, France and Britain on Saturday launched strikes against Bashar Assad's regime a week after a chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma, just east of the capital Damascus.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced on Saturday "with the utmost firmness" the strikes which he described as "an act of aggression against a sovereign state which is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism".
On Sunday, he warned that new Western air strikes would provoke "chaos" in international relations.
He made his warning during a telephone call with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani.
The two leaders "found that this illegal action seriously damaged the prospects of a political settlement in Syria," a Kremlin statement said.
