French President Emmanuel Macron is heading Monday to the United States for a state visit with President Donald Trump, looking to convince him of the need to keep a U.S. presence in Syria even after the defeat of Islamic State terrorists and to give the European Union an exemption on new aluminum and steel tariffs.
He described the U.S. as "a player of last resorts for peace and multilateralism."
Trump has said he wants to pull the estimated 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria as soon as possible, even as a week ago he ordered the U.S. military to join France and Britain in launching missiles targeting Syrian chemical weapons facilities in response to a suspected Syrian gas attack. Trump's planned troop withdrawal comes after the fall of Raqqa, Islamic State's self-declared capital of its religious caliphate in northern Syria.
"I'm going to be very blunt," Macron said in the interview. "If we leave ... will we leave the floor to the Iranian regime and (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad? They will prepare a new war."
He said the U.S. and France are allied but that "even Russia and Turkey will have a very important role to play to create this new Syria and ensure the Syrian people decide for the future."