Germany hints at long-term military presence in Mideast

Asked on Saturday about the need for a strategic base in the Middle East, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen replied that she could not "rule the idea out."

“First we must bring this deployment to a successful end. I don’t want to rule the idea out, let me put it this way,” she said during a visit to the Azraq air base in Jordan.

The base hosts some 300 German troops operating as part of the US-led coalition that has been carrying out airstrikes on what are said to be Daesh targets in Iraq and Syria since 2014.

The air raids have done little to dislodge the terrorist group, but rather claimed many civilian lives and inflicted damage on the countries’ infrastructure. 

Reports say German special forces are present in northern Syria aiding the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They are also providing training and weapons to Kurdish Peshmerga militants in Iraq.

The US also mulls a long-term military presence in Syria. US special representative for Syria James Jeffrey announced recently that American forces would remain in the country, adding that it “means we’re not in a hurry to pull out."

Earlier this month, American marines held eight days of unprecedented military exercises with US-backed militants near a military base in the town of al-Tanf in southeastern Syria.

The US illegally built the military outpost in early 2016 under the pretext of fighting Daesh terrorists, but it has declared a 55 km-radius “deconfliction zone” off-limits to others, providing a safe haven for at least 50,000 militants and their families in the Rukban camp that lies within it.

Earlier this month, Berlin said that it was in talks with Washington and other allies about a possible involvement in airstrikes on Syria if pro-Damascus forces allegedly used chemical weapons. 

Germany did not join the US, Britain and France in their April 14 missile strike against sites and research facilities near Damascus and Homs.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed that Berlin could not just reject military intervention out of hand, saying, “It cannot be the German position to simply say ‘No’, no matter what happens in the world.”

In recent weeks, Syria and Russia have warned of Takfiri terrorists' ploy to conduct another false-flag chemical attack to give the US and its allies a pretext to target the government.

Syria surrendered its entire chemical stockpile in 2013 to a mission led by the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN.