Donald Trump lashed out at former President Obama when he warned that the US should not get involved in the civil war in Syria.
The president-elect’s comments come as fighting has flared in the Middle Eastern country in recent weeks, with rebel forces capturing several key cities.
The insurgents have claimed Aleppo and a series of other cities cities in the northwest of the country and appear ready to take the capital Damascus in an attempt to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
But Trump warned that the US should have “nothing to do with” the conflict in a post on Truth Social in which he blamed Obama for “refusing to keep his promise” to help Syria during his time in office.
He suggested that the rebels’ success is due to Russia, a key ally of President Assad, being concerned about the war in Ukraine.
“Russia, being so mired in Ukraine and having lost over 600,000 soldiers there, appears unable to stop this literal march through Syria, a country it has protected for years,” Trump wrote.
Donald Trump has said the US should not get involved in the reignited civil war in Syria
“This is where former President Obama refused to keep his promise to protect the RED LINE IN THE SAND, and all hell broke loose, with Russia’s intervention.
“But now they, like possibly Assad himself, are being forced out, and that could be the best thing that can happen to them.
“There has never been much benefit for Russia in Syria other than making Obama look very stupid. Anyway, Syria is a mess, but it is not our friend (…) this is not our fight.”
Trump’s comments appeared to reflect his opposition to the presence of about 900 U.S. troops in Syria, most of them in the northeast, where they have supported a Syrian Kurdish-led alliance in preventing a resurgence of Islamic State militants .
The civil war in Syria has been simmering for more than a decade, but for a long time relatively little progress has been made on either side.
The last time Assad was in serious trouble was a decade ago, at the height of the country’s civil war, when his forces lost control of parts of the largest city, Aleppo, and his opponents closed in on Damascus.
At the time, he was rescued by his main international backer Russia and his old regional ally Iran, who, along with Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militia, helped Assad’s forces retake Aleppo, turning the war decisively in his favor.
insurgents have already claimed Aleppo and a string of other cities and towns in the country’s northwest and appear poised to take the capital Damascus
Trump suggested that the rebels’ success is due to Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, being involved in the war in Ukraine.
Russia has been preoccupied with its war in Ukraine, and Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of its fighters to bolster Assad’s forces, has been weakened by years of conflict with Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran has seen its allies across the region deteriorated by Israeli airstrikes.
Trump’s comments come ahead of his visit to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, where the president-elect will appear to commemorate the reopening of the iconic church after a devastating fire in 2019.