US to Withdraw Troops From MidEast Regardless of Who Wins Election, Syrian Opposition Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The withdrawal of US troops from the Middle East will proceed regardless of the upcoming presidential election's outcome, Qadri Jamil, the leader of Syria's Popular Front for Change and Liberation opposition coalition and the head of the Syrian opposition's Moscow Platform, said on Tuesday.

"It doesn't matter who wins the upcoming presidential election in America - [Joe] Biden or [incumbent President Donald] Trump - there will be no change to the American foreign policy. They are essentially pursuing the same policy, but its form is different in details. The only difference will be in the speed of troops withdrawal from the region. If Biden wins, the withdrawal will be slower, but it will take place anyway", Jamil said at a virtual press conference.

At the same time, the politician opined that Washington "would try to keep [its] presence" out of necessity to redeploy troops around the world due to the fact that "the situation in the world, in general, has changed".

The United States has had its troops in war-torn Syria since 2014, albeit their presence was neither requested by the Syrian government nor authorised by the UN Security Council.

Since Trump came to power in 2016, he several times announced withdrawal, but never withdrew completely. Last October, after the Syrian-deployed US troops eliminated a Daesh* leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi, Trump declared the country's fight against terrorists over but said that part of some 2,000 troops would remain in Syria to protect the essential oil infrastructure.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/IS/ISIL) is a terrorist group banned in Russia