‘Hillary will cause World War 3’

Donald Trump says defeating Islamic State a higher priority than forcing out Syrian president Assad

DORAL, FLORIDA : US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Democrat Hillary Clinton’s plan for Syria would “lead to World War 3”, because of the potential for conflict with military forces from nuclear-armed Russia.

In an interview focussed largely on foreign policy, Trump said defeating Islamic State is a higher priority than persuading Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, playing down a long-held goal of US policy.

Trump questioned how Clinton would negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin after demonising him; blamed President Barack Obama for a downturn in US relations with the Philippines under its new president, Rodrigo Duterte; bemoaned a lack of Republican unity behind his candidacy and said he would easily win the election if the party leaders would support him.

“If we had party unity, we couldn’t lose this election to Hillary Clinton,” he said.

On Syria’s civil war, Trump said Clinton could drag the United States into a world war with a more aggressive posture towards resolving the conflict.

Clinton has called for the establishment of a no-fly zone and “safe zones” on the ground to protect non-combatants. Some analysts fear that protecting those zones could bring the United States into direct conflict with Russian fighter jets.

“What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focussing on Syria,” said Trump as he dined on fried eggs and sausage at his Trump National Doral golf resort.

“You’re going to end up in World War III over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton,” Trump said.

“You’re not fighting Syria any more, you’re fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right? Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk,” he said. He also said Assad is much stronger now than he was three years ago.