Trump ends anti-Assad rebel support in Syria

The move marks a victory for Syrian dictator and his allies Russia and Iran

President Trump’s decision to cut off aid to anti-government rebels in Syria marks a victory for President Bashar Assad in his six-year civil war — as well as allies Russia and Iran — and a defeat for U.S. efforts to remove the Syrian dictator.

Trump decided to end a covert CIA program under former president Barack Obama to train moderate rebels to fight Assad,

reported Wednesday.

The report comes two weeks after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Germany and after the United States and Russia announced a limited cease-fire in southeastern Syria that promised to end Syrian airstrikes on rebel-held areas there.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at the time that while the U.S. hopes to extend the truce to other parts of the country, U.S. policy remains that Assad and his family have “no long-term role” as rulers in Syria.

The CIA training program was approved by Obama, who called for Assad to step down because of brutal oppression by his regime.

The U.S. government has accused Assad of bombing civilians and using banned chemical weapons. Trump ordered airstrikes against a Syrian military airfield in April following reports that Assad used chemical weapons against a rebel-held area that killed women and children.

The program was never big enough to accomplish the goal of Assad’s ouster, said Frederic Hof, Obama’s special Syria adviser, now at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, D.C.

“If we’re going to give this up, we should get something in return because it is something of value,” he said. “It did some substantial good with specific (rebel) units and specific individuals, people we were trying to promote in terms of being non-sectarian alternatives to Assad.”

Iran provided troops and Russia, Assad’s other chief ally, provided the air force to support the Syrian government in September 2015, after U.S.-supplied rebels had scored a string of victories and threatened to overrun the Syrian capital, Damascus. Since then, Assad and forces supporting him have regained territory and vanquished rebel strongholds in Aleppo and Homs, two of the country’s largest cities.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote Wednesday on Twitter that Trump’s move to end the CIA program, if true, “would be a complete capitulation to Assad, Russia, and Iran.” It would be a loss for Syrians who have been relentlessly attacked by Assad, the U.S.’ Arab partners who’ve supported anti-Assad forces in Syria and U.S. standing in the Middle East, Graham wrote. “I fear this policy will lead to giving yet another Arab capital — Damascus — to the Iranians.”

Putin launched his air war in Syria saying he would attack “terrorists,” but while the Islamic State committed atrocities and Assad dropped barrel bombs on civilian targets, according to human rights groups, Russian airstrikes focused on rebels fighting Assad.