Syria’s Assad Sees Trumps Islamic State View as Promising
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Venezuelan state television TeleSUR in Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria’s national news agency SANA on September 26, 2013. REUTERS/SANA/Handout via Reuters
Trump has indicated he might cut U.S. support for Syrian rebels and might help Syria in the fight against Islamic State.
He has made defeating Islamic State a core goal of his presidency and signed an executive order asking the Pentagon, the joint chiefs of staff and other agencies to submit a preliminary plan on how to proceed within 30 days.
Assad was quoted by SANA as telling a group of Belgian reporters: “I believe this is promising but we have to wait and it’s too early to expect anything practical.”
In a tweet on Monday, Trump said: “The threat from radical Islamic terrorism is very real, just look at what is happening in Europe and the Middle-East. Courts must act fast!”
Assad was also quoted as saying that U.S-Russian cooperation in stepping up the fight against the militants would have positive repercussions.
Trump’s declared policies on Syria have represented a significant break with those of his predecessor, Barack Obama, who was for Assad’s departure as a condition for resolving the Syrian crisis.