From January 1, 2018, the Russian side will reduce the number of airfields that the United States will be allowed to use in accordance with the agreement on the open sky. This decision was a response to the actions of Washington, which intends to close the airspace over Hawaii and Alaska for observers from the Russian Federation, and to impose restrictions on the range of sorties.
Meanwhile, in Syria, the base of American troops near the Al-Tanf settlement, located at the southern border of the republic in the province of Homs, was surrounded by soldiers of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). According to Valery Gerasimov, the area of the US base is limited to a land segment with a radius of 55 kilometers, the perimeter of this zone is entirely controlled by subdivisions of the Syrian troops.
Repeatedly there have been reports that this base marks the movements of militant armed groups, which are being prepared in large numbers by United States special services from Al-Tanf. The Americans themselves claim that they are preparing and supplying all necessary formations of armed opposition in order to confront the terrorists of the “Islamic state”. However, at the moment this grouping is broken down into the territory of Syria due to, first of all, the actions of the Russian military security services and the government army of the SAR. The question of the presence of US troops on the territory of the Arab Republic, thus, remains open.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeatedly stressed that the base formed by the American forces in the south of the province of Homs is absolutely unneeded. It should be noted that, in general, there is absolutely no need for the US military to stay on Syrian soil either. Nevertheless, the Pentagon does not hurry to stop its so-called antiterrorist operation in the SAR, or at least to reduce the contingent of its armed forces illegally stationed in the Arab Republic.