Germany will not grant a US request to send German ground troops to Syria, according to government spokesperson Steffen Seibert, who spoke during a press conference in Berlin on Monday.
Washington had requested several hundred German troops be sent to Syria in order to fill in the gap as the US looks to withdraw from the region.
“When I say the government envisages sticking to the current measures in the anti-Islamic State [military] coalition, this includes no ground troops,” Seibert stated.
While acknowledging that the challenge posed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS; formerly ISIS/ISIL) was far from over, Seibert explained that the German government’s approach was made up of “a number of military and civil components.”
Iran’s alleged breach of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was also discussed by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Rainer Breul, who commented that Germany would refrain from any action until receiving a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA, who are in the process of verifying the breach.