Northeast Syria on Edge After U.S. Policy Shift (Full Transcript)
[00:00:00] Speaker 1: As the world focuses on Iran and Greenland, Syria, just one year into its new post-Assad presidency, is already showing just how fragile it is. So we went to Northeast Syria to see for ourselves. I found Kurdish fighters there on edge, manning checkpoints, weapons-ready. For years, they fought alongside the U.S. against ISIS. Now Washington says they should give up their autonomy and integrate into the Syrian army. Many I spoke to only heard betrayal. I met families displaced by fighting again and again. After years of war, they told me they had lost everything. We went to El Roj, a bleak detention camp, holding more than 2,000 foreign women and children who once came to live under the Islamic State. The camp administrator said detainees vowed ISIS would take revenge. But one British woman we spoke to told us she was desperate to leave. She said the U.K. had revoked her citizenship. She said she was no longer with ISIS and feared for her young son. As we left Syria, Kurdish volunteers were preparing for battle. One fighter told us America always follows its interests and then moves on. Everywhere we went, the anger at the U.S. was palpable.
- Northeast Syria remains highly unstable, even under a new national political order.
- Kurdish forces who fought ISIS alongside the U.S. fear loss of autonomy and distrust Washington’s shifting priorities.
- Civilians continue to suffer repeated displacement and material loss amid renewed fighting.
- Detention camps like El Roj remain a security and humanitarian flashpoint, with concerns about ISIS resurgence.
- Citizenship revocations leave some foreign detainees effectively stateless and desperate to exit, especially with children involved.
- Local sentiment toward the U.S. is marked by resentment and a belief that American engagement is transactional.