WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump mentioned Saturday that america ought to keep away from participating militarily in Syria amid an opposition offensive that has reached the capital’s suburbs, declaring in a social media publish, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.”
Trump’s first intensive feedback on the dramatic insurgent push got here whereas he was in Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral. He argued that Syrian President Bashar Assad didn’t deserve U.S. help to remain in energy.
Assad’s authorities has been propped up by the Russian and Iranian navy, together with Hezbollah and different Iranian-allied militias, in a now 13-year-old warfare in opposition to opposition teams in search of his overthrow. The warfare, which started as a principally peaceable rebellion in 2011 in opposition to the Assad household’s rule, has killed a half-million folks, fractured Syria and drawn in a greater than a half-dozen international militaries and militias.
The insurgents are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which america has designated as a terrorist group and says has hyperlinks to al-Qaida, though the group has since damaged ties with al-Qaida.” The insurgents have met little resistance so removed from the Syrian military.
The Biden administration has advised that their fast-moving advances towards Damascus display simply how distracted these international locations are by the warfare in Ukraine and different conflicts, however mentioned that the U.S. shouldn’t be backing the offensive and has not advised the U.S. navy will intervene.
The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria, together with U.S. forces working with Kurdish allies within the opposition-held northeast to stop any resurgence of the Islamic State group.
Gen. Bryan Fenton, the pinnacle of U.S. Particular Operations Command, mentioned he wouldn’t wish to speculate on how the upheaval in Syria would have an effect on the U.S. navy’s footprint within the nation. “It’s still too early to tell,” he mentioned.
What wouldn’t change is the concentrate on disrupting IS operations in Syria and defending U.S. troops, Fenton mentioned Saturday throughout a panel at an annual gathering of nationwide safety officers, protection firms and lawmakers on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.
Syrian opposition activists and regional officers have nonetheless been watching carefully for any indication from each the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration on how the U.S. would deal with the sudden insurgent advances in opposition to Assad.
Robert Wilkie, Trump’s protection transition chief and a former secretary of the Division of Veterans Affairs, mentioned throughout the identical panel that the collapse of the “murderous Assad regime” can be a serious blow to Iran’s energy.
The United Nations’ particular envoy for Syria known as Saturday for pressing talks in Geneva to make sure an “orderly political transition” in Syria.
In his publish, Trump mentioned Russia “is so tied up in Ukraine” that it “seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years.” He mentioned rebels may probably power Assad from energy.
The president-elect condemned the general U.S. dealing with of the warfare however mentioned the routing of Assad and Russian forces is likely to be for one of the best.
“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!” he wrote in Saturday’s publish.
An influential Syrian opposition activist in Washington, Mouaz Moustafa, interrupted a briefing to reporters to learn Trump’s publish and appeared to choke up. He mentioned Trump’s declaration that the U.S. ought to keep out of the struggle was one of the best end result that the the Syrians aligned in opposition to Assad may hope for.
Rebels have been liberating political detainees of the Assad authorities from prisons as they advance throughout Syria, taking cities. Moustafa pledged to reporters Saturday that opposition forces can be alert for any U.S. detainees amongst them and do their utmost to guard them.
Moustafa mentioned that features Austin Tice, an American journalist lacking for greater than a decade and suspected to be held by Assad.
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Hayat Tahrir al-Sham renounced al-Qaida in 2016 and has labored to rebrand itself, together with cracking down on some Islamic extremist teams and fighters in its territory and portraying itself as a protector of Christians and different non secular minorities.
Whereas the U.S. and United Nations nonetheless designate it as a terrorist group, Trump’s first administration informed lawmakers that the U.S. was now not focusing on the group’s chief, Abu Mohammed al-Golani.
Related Press author Tara Copp in Simi Valley, California, contributed to this report.
