WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States should avoid military involvement in Syria amid an offensive by opposition groups that has reached suburbs of the capital, declaring on social media, “THIS IS NOT OUR WAR.”
Trump's broadest comments about the dramatic push by the rebels came as he was in Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral. He pointed out that Syrian President Bashar Assad does not deserve the support of the US to continue in power.
Assad's government is backed by Russian and Iranian forces, as well as Hezbollah and other Iranian-allied forces, in the now 13-year-old war with opposition groups seeking to overthrow him. The war, which began as a peaceful uprising in 2011, against the rule of the Assad family, has killed half a million people, torn Syria apart and drawn more than a dozen foreign troops and troops.
The terrorists are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the United States has designated as a terrorist group and says it has ties to al-Qaida, although the group has severed ties with al-Qaida.” The rebels have met little resistance from the Syrian army so far.
The Biden administration has suggested that its advance toward Damascus shows how those countries are distracted by the war in Ukraine and other conflicts, but said the US does not support that attack and has not suggested US military intervention.
The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria, including the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led opposition group in the north-east to prevent any further outbursts from the Islamic State group.
Syrian opposition activists and regional officials have been watching closely for any indication from the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration on how the US will handle the sudden development of the Assad rebellion.
The United Nations special envoy for Syria called for urgent talks in Geneva on Saturday to ensure an “orderly political transition” in Syria.
In his letter, Trump said that Russia is “so tied up in Ukraine” that it “seems unable to stop this march through Syria, a country it has protected for years.” He said the rebels could oust Assad.
The president-elect has criticized the US military's handling of the war, but said the Assad and Russian military maneuvers may be too good.
“Syria is a mess, but it is not our friend, and the UNITED STATES should have nothing to do with it. THIS IS NOT OUR WAR. PLAY IT. DON'T MISS YOURSELF!” he wrote in Saturday's post.
A powerful Syrian opposition activist in Washington, Mouaz Moustafa, interrupted a press conference to read Trump's writings and appeared to choke him. He said Trump's announcement that the US should stay out of the war is the best outcome the Syrians who are aligned with Assad can hope for.
Rebels have been freeing Assad government political prisoners from prisons as they march through Syria, taking over cities. Moustafa promised reporters on Saturday that opposition forces would monitor any American prisoners in their midst and do everything possible to protect them.
Moustafa said that includes Austin Tice, an American journalist who has been missing for more than a decade and is suspected of being held captive by Assad.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham abandoned al-Qaida in 2016 and has worked to reinvent itself, including harassing some extremist Muslim groups and militants in its territory and portraying itself as a protector of Christians and other religious minorities.
While the US and the United Nations still designate it as a terrorist organization, the first Trump administration told lawmakers that the US no longer recognizes the group's leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani.
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