WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the U.S. military should not be involved in a rapidly escalating situation. syria conflicta dramatic rebel offensive reached the capital and threatened the control of Syria’s Russian-Iranian alliance president. “This is not our fight,” President Trump declared on social media.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser separately said his administration plans to intervene as world leaders watch an alarming advance by rebel groups that could change the balance of power in the Middle East. He emphasized that there is no.
“The United States has no intention of militarily rushing into the middle of the Syrian civil war,” Jake Sullivan told an audience in California.
Sullivan said he wants to ensure that the radical anti-Western militant group Islamic State, which is not known to have been involved in the attack but has sleeper cells in the Syrian desert, does not take advantage of the opening created by the fighting. He said the United States would continue to act as necessary.
The rebels’ stunning march across Syria appeared to have reached its goal hours after the two men’s meeting, after the rebels captured many of the country’s other major cities within about 10 days. entered Damascus. The Syrian opposition war monitor said early Sunday that Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location.
President Trump’s comments on it Dramatic pressure from rebel forces It was the first such attack since Syrian rebel forces began advancing late last month. They came while he was there. Paris prepares for reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.
In his post, President Trump said Assad does not deserve U.S. support to remain in power.
assad regime It is supported by Russian and Iranian forces, as well as Hezbollah and other Iranian-allied militias. There has been a 13-year war with rebel groups seeking to overthrow him. The war, which began in 2011 as a mostly peaceful uprising against the rule of the Assad family, has killed 500,000 people, divided Syria and brought in more than half a dozen foreign troops and militias. The United States quickly closed its embassy in Syria and imposed sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad for his brutal war efforts.
The rebel army is led by Hayat Tahrir Al Shamthe United States has designated the group as a terrorist organization and claims it has ties to al-Qaeda, but the group has since severed ties with al-Qaeda.
The rebels have so far encountered little resistance from the Syrian, Russian, Iranian, or allied militias within the country.
The Biden administration said the ease with which Syrian rebels were able to capture government-held cities showed what the situation was like. Russia’s Ukraine war And Iran and Iranian militias’ fights against Israel in Gaza and Lebanon have weakened its power.
“Assad’s supporters – Iran, Russia, Hezbollah – are all weakened,” Sullivan said Saturday at the annual gathering of national security officials, defense companies and members of Congress at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. “My attention is getting distracted,” he said.
“None of them are prepared to provide Assad with the kind of support they have provided in the past,” he later added.
The United States has about 900 troops in Syria, including American forces working with Kurdish allies in the rebel-held northeast to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State.
Gen. Brian Fenton, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, said he did not want to speculate on how the turmoil in Syria would affect U.S. military presence in the country. “It’s still too early to tell,” he said.
What hasn’t changed is the focus on disrupting IS operations in Syria and protecting U.S. forces, Fenton said during a panel discussion at President Reagan’s event.
Syrian opposition activists and regional officials are watching closely for any hints from the incoming Trump administration about how the United States will respond to the rebel advance against Assad.
Robert Wilkie, the Trump administration’s defense transition director and former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, said at the same event in California that the fall of the “murderous Assad regime” would be a major blow to Iranian power. Ta.
Trump said in the post that Russia is “deeply tied to Ukraine” and “seems unable to stop this literal march through Syria, which Russia has protected for years.” He said the rebels could force Assad from power.
The president-elect criticized the overall U.S. response to the war, but said it might be best for Assad and Russian forces to be routed.
“Syria is in turmoil, but the United States should have nothing to do with it because it is not our friend. This is not our fight. Let’s play. Don’t get involved. !” he wrote in a post on Saturday.
Muaz Mustafa, an influential Syrian opposition activist in Washington, interrupted a press briefing to read Trump’s post and appeared choked up. He said President Trump’s declaration that the United States should not get involved in the fighting was the best outcome the Syrians in the anti-Assad coalition could hope for.
As the rebels advance across Syria, they have released Assad’s political detainees from government prisons. Mustafa told reporters on Saturday that the rebels would be on the lookout for American detainees among them and would do everything in their power to protect them.
Mr. Mustafa said that includes: austin ticean American journalist who has been missing for more than a decade and is suspected of being held by Assad.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham broke away from al-Qaeda in 2016 and has cracked down on some Islamic extremist groups and fighters in its territory, acting as a protector of Christians and other religious minorities. We have been working on changing our own brand.
Although the United States and the United Nations still list it as a terrorist organization, the first Trump administration told the lawmakers The US has made clear it is no longer targeting the group’s leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani.
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Kopp reported from Simi Valley, California.
