(Newswire.net — April 2, 2017) — U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, said on Thursday that Washington no longer seeks the Syrian regime to change, leaving Assad’s destiny in the hands of Syrian people, at least those who support him.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., said earlier that Washington’s “priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out.”
The turnaround in the U.S. policy on Syria and closing in on solutions offered by Kremlin, embarrassed all those who sought the regime shift in favor to the U.S.
Republican senators, John McCain (R-Arizona) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), condemned the change of policy that Trump’s administration brought to the crisis in Syria, and warned that it would empower Al Qaida and ISIS in the region.
Senator McCain said he was “deeply disturbed” by Haley and Tillerson’s pronouncements, Russia Today reported. “Suggestion that Assad can stay in power appears to be just as devoid of strategy, as President Obama’s pronouncements that ‘Assad must go’,” said McCain in a statement.
According to Senator McCain, Syrian people can’t decide about their country “slaughtered by Assad’s barrel bombs, Putin’s aircrafts, and Iran’s terrorist proxies.”
The majority of Syrian people, in fact, support Assad’s presidency. The opposition backed by the U.S., wanted to overthrow Assad, believing that this would be easy with the help of NATO allies. The third party, however, entered the equation. ISIS troops entered from Iraq, in order to seize resources and land.
The U.S. lead coalition started aerial attacks on ISIS posts to help Syrian rebels, but also attacked Assad’s military posts and troops. After a year of unsuccessful air raid campaign, Russian Air Force launched a campaign against ISIS in Syria, while occasionally hitting Syrian rebels.
The war in Syria created massive migrations to the European Union as millions of civilian refugees fled to EU countries, particularly aiming for Germany because of the highest living standards. Meanwhile, the U.S. backed “moderate rebels” to start joining ISIS. Numerous reports claim the military equipment and vehicles sent by Pentagon to Syrian allies, soon ended up in the hands of ISIS fighters.
President Trump promised in his presidential campaign that he will end the U.S. support of Syrian rebels. “Now we’re backing rebels against Syria, and we have no idea who these people are,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal in November last year.
“My attitude was you’re fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran which is becoming powerful because of us,” Trump explained.