WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump mentioned Saturday that the US 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 put up, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.”
Trump’s first in depth feedback on the dramatic rebel 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. assist to remain in energy.
Assad’s authorities has been propped up by the Russian and Iranian military, along with Hezbollah and other Iranian-allied militias, in a now 13-year-old struggle towards opposition teams in search of his overthrow. The struggle, which started as a principally peaceable rebellion in 2011 towards the Assad household’s rule, has killed a half-million individuals, 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 the US 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 recommended that their fast-moving advances towards Damascus reveal simply how distracted these nations are by the war in Ukraine and different conflicts, however mentioned that the U.S. just isn’t backing the offensive and has not recommended 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 forestall 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 nonetheless too early to inform,” he mentioned.
What wouldn’t change is the give attention to 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 corporations and lawmakers on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.
Syrian opposition activists and regional officers have nonetheless been watching intently 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 towards 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 significant blow to Iran’s energy.
The United Nations’ particular envoy for Syria referred to as Saturday for pressing talks in Geneva to make sure an “orderly political transition” in Syria.
In his put up, Trump mentioned Russia “is so tied up in Ukraine” that it “appears incapable of stopping this literal march by way of Syria, a rustic they’ve protected for years.” He mentioned rebels might presumably power Assad from energy.
The president-elect condemned the general U.S. dealing with of the struggle however mentioned the routing of Assad and Russian forces is perhaps for the very best.
“Syria is a large number, however just isn’t our buddy, & 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 put up.
An influential Syrian opposition activist in Washington, Mouaz Moustafa, interrupted a briefing to reporters to learn Trump’s put up and appeared to choke up. He mentioned Trump’s declaration that the U.S. ought to keep out of the combat was the very best end result that the the Syrians aligned towards Assad might hope for.
Rebels have been releasing 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.
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 told lawmakers that the U.S. was not focusing on the group’s chief, Abu Mohammed al-Golani.
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Related Press author Tara Copp in Simi Valley, California, contributed to this report.
