Mixed messages on Syria goals
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration gave mixed messages about its goals in Syria yesterday, with officials stressing different priorities after a U.S. airstrike that marked a deepening involvement in the country’s conflict.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad is a U.S. priority, just as it was under the Barack Obama administration, and that peace in Syria was probably impossible while he remained in power.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took a more nuanced view, asserting that Assad had undermined his legitimacy as a leader but declaring that defeating the Islamic State remains the top U.S. goal in Syria.
President Trump’s longterm intentions in Syria thus remained unclear in the days since 59 Tomahawk missiles fell on a Syrian air base that U.S. officials said was used to launch a poison gas attack last Tuesday that killed about 80 Syrian civilians and injured dozens more.
The retaliatory airstrike was a policy reversal for Trump, who said during his campaign that the United States should not involve itself in local conflicts. Yesterday, Tillerson emphasized that the administration considers defeating the Sunni militants of the Islamic State the most pressing concern in Syria, not ousting Assad.
“First and foremost, we must defeat ISIS,” Tillerson said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Assad’s eventual fate, he said, “is something that we will be working with allies and others in the coalition.”
Meanwhile, national security adviser H.R. McMaster left open the possibility of additional U.S. military action against Syria following last week’s missile strike but suggested Russia — Assad’s patron — may be the answer to Assad.
McMaster cited dual U.S. goals of defeating the Islamic State group and removing Assad.
But he suggested that Trump was seeking a global political response for regime change from U.S. allies as well as Russia, which he said needed to re-evaluate its support of Syria.
“It’s very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime,” McMaster said.
“Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions.
“Russia should ask themselves ... Why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population?”