President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has high hopes from the new trump administration in Washington, D.C. When interviewed by a Belgian news agency, the Syrian leader expressed hope that US President Donald Trump will ease tensions with Russia in an effort to defeat ISIS and works towards a new Syria. Moving forward the Obama era of hostility and inconsistency towards Assad and Russia, it is worth watching how President Trump handles the Syrian crisis.
Assad's view on the Syrian crisis
The Syrian leader deemed Trump; "promising regarding the priority of fighting terrorists, and mainly ISIS." As President Trump ran his campaign promising to eradicate ISIS, this is surely an issue of which the US President and Syrian leader can work together upon.
Assad also attacked the European Union (EU) for arming extremist factions of rebels in Syria; “since the very beginning" of the Civil War, adding that the EU cannot “destroy and build (Syria) at the same time." Assad added; "The EU is supporting the terrorists in Syria from the very beginning under different titles: humanitarians, moderate, and so on.”
Assad cited al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda in Syria, as one of the extremist groups supported by the EU. The United States has also supported this group, as Assad says that “the Europeans don’t exist politically, they only follow the master, which is the Americans.”
What will come of Syria?
With the six year anniversary of the 2011 Syrian Civil War approaching, President Assad is desperate for peace in his war-torn nation.
US policy under President Obama flip-flopped between "Assad must go" and "Assad must stay" and any leader, despite the war crimes committed by Assad against his own people. During the 2016 election Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump was criticized for stating that the US should not have ousted Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya from power, as ousting dictators creates a void in which groups like ISIS can rise to power.
Now President Trump is in the position to support the Assad regime and its hope to cling to power in Syria. With upwards of 400,000 Syrian civilians killed since 2011, one can only hope that Assad is right in that US-Russian partnership can put an end to the crisis in Syria.
