France will remain "militarily engaged" in the Middle East through 2019, as the deaths of four U.S. soldiers and civilians in Syria a day earlier showed the fight against extremism was not yet over, said President Emmanuel Macron Thursday.
"The retreat from Syria announced by our American friends cannot make us deviate from our strategic objective – eradicating Daesh," Macron said in a speech at an army base near Toulouse, using an Arabic acronym for the ISIL group.
The French military has deployed 1,200 soldiers as part of the anti-ISIL efforts, via air operations, artillery and special forces in Syria as well as training for the Iraqi army.
French army Rafale fighter jets fly towards Syria, as part of France's Operation Chammal launched in September 2015 in support of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIL, September 27, 2015. /VCG Photo
"We are staying invested to participate in the stabilization of the region," Macron said, adding: "Any rush to withdraw would be a mistake."
Macron has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for announcing in December that he would begin withdrawing the approximately 2,000 U.S. troops now in Syria.
Macron said he "deeply regretted the decision," adding that "an ally must be reliable."
Former U.S. intelligence officer Michael Pregent, now an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute, said that the ISIL group remains a threat in the region despite Washington's repeated insistence that the group has been destroyed.
A line of U.S. military vehicles in Syria's northern city of Manbij, December 30, 2018. /VCG Photo
"The international coalition along with the United States has to recognize that ISIL isn't defeated," Pregent said.
He noted that al-Qaeda was beaten back in Iraq after the creation of a Sunni Arab force to counter the Sunni extremists of al-Qaeda, something that came to be known as the "Sunni Awakening."
"We haven't done that in Syria," said Pregent, predicting that the "cycle of violence" would continue until the West gets its policy right.