DAMASCUS, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. strike in eastern Syria earlier on Friday proves that the U.S. foreign policy is still unchanged under the administration of Joe Biden, Syrian experts say.
Earlier in the day, the U.S. struck positions of Iran-backed militia groups in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour near the Iraqi border, killing 22 fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The strikes were the first to hit Syria under the U.S. new administration of Biden, who was thought to be different from former President Donald Trump in terms of dealing with the regional issues in the Middle East.
In the U.S., officials said the attack comes in response to the recent rocket attacks on U.S. forces in the region.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he was "confident" the targeted sites were used by the same Iranian-backed militias that had fired rockets at U.S. and coalition forces.
"The U.S. strike is a message to Damascus, Baghdad, and Tehran and I think mostly to Tehran," Maher Ihsan, a political expert, told Xinhua.
This strike is an obvious indicator that the new U.S. administration hasn't changed the traditional U.S. policy in dealing with the Middle East, he said.
Ihsan said that the strike was like a non-verbal statement by Biden about his stance toward what is happening in Syria, noting that the strike and its connotations don't bode well for Syria and the region.
"The strike is not a comfortable sign about the intentions of the new U.S. administration," he said.
Osama Danura, another political expert, agreed that the strike was a negative indicator at the beginning of the Biden administration.
"The strike supported the idea that the U.S. is still the same no matter who comes to the presidency. They have the same policy in using the military as an arm for their foreign policy," he told Xinhua.
Recently, there have been U.S. warnings to Iran, said Danura, noting that it's negative to see the response happening on Syrian soil.
"It seems like the Biden administration is following the steps of the previous administration in terms of the policy toward the Middle Eastern issues," he said.
For his side, Ghassan Youssef, a political expert, said the strike is an obvious message that the United States doesn't want to see an Iranian presence of influence in Syria like the previous administration.
"The U.S. wants to stress that it doesn't want Iran in Syria and doesn't want Iran to support Syria economically or militarily," he told Xinhua. Enditem
