White House says Biden monitoring ‘extraordinary events’ in Syria
The outgoing US President Joe Biden has been monitoring the situation in Syria as militant groups take the capital city in a stunning toppling of the Assads’ 50-year rule over the Arab country.
Biden is “closely monitoring” the events and retaining contact with regional partners, the White House announced on Saturday.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reportedly left the country for an undisclosed location after the militant groups led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani captured the capital Damascus following a series of attacks launched in late November.
“President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement on social media.
Biden’s national security adviser separately emphasized that the outgoing administration had no immediate plan to launch a military operation to intervene in the events unfolding in the Arab country amid the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
“The United States is not going to … militarily dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war,” Jake Sullivan told an audience at an annual gathering of national security officials, defense companies, and lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California on Saturday.
“None of them are prepared to provide the kind of support to Assad that they provided in the past,” he later added.
In related news, incoming US President-elect Donald Trump said the US forces should stay out of the fight in Syria.
“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!” he wrote in a post on social media on Saturday.
During his re-election campaign, Trump vowed to “end the chaos in the Middle East” when he takes office in January after Christmas and the holiday season is over.
Trump, who is in the French capital Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral, added in his post that Assad did not deserve US support to stay in power.
The United States has about 900 troops stationed in Syria, including US forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast.
Source:Press TV