President Trump says he may meet with President Maduro
President Trump has said he may meet with Venezuelan President Maduro amid a pressure campaign against Venezuela that includes a major U.S. military buildup.
The US military announced on Sunday that it had recently destroyed 15 Islamic State weapons depots in southern Syria.
U.S. Central Command announced that it and the Syrian Army identified and destroyed storage facilities throughout Rif Damashk province during multiple airstrikes and ground explosions conducted from November 24 to November 27.
“This joint operation resulted in the destruction of more than 130 mortars and rockets, multiple assault rifles, machine guns, anti-tank mines, and improvised explosive device manufacturing materials,” Centcom said in a statement.
The Islamic State group, which once imposed hardline Islamist rule on millions of people in Syria and Iraq, has managed to rebuild and reunite after being largely crushed by the US-led coalition several years ago.
CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said Sunday that the operation “will continue the gains we have made against ISIS.”
US President Donald Trump vowed on November 10 to do everything in his power to help Syria succeed after meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Shalah, a former al-Qaeda commander who until recently was sanctioned by the US government as a foreign terrorist.
The Syrian government announced at the time, days before the Washington talks, that Syria had carried out a nationwide first-strike operation targeting Islamic State cells.
One of Schaller’s main objectives in his meeting with President Trump was to seek a complete lifting of the most severe US sanctions against the country.
During the meeting, the U.S. Treasury Department announced a 180-day extension of the so-called Caesar sanctions moratorium, which only the U.S. Congress can lift completely.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Ted Hesson; Editing by Diane Craft and Chris Reese)
