US shouldn't intervene in Syria: Trump

Presidentelect Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States should avoid engaging militarily in Syria amid an insurgent offensive that has reached the suburbs of the capital declaring in a social media post THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHTTrumps first extensive comments on the dramatic rebel push came while he was in Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral He argued that Syrian President Bashar Assad did not deserve US support to stay in powerAssad is allied with Russia and Iran and the Biden administration which considers the Syrian rebels leading the offensive to be aligned with terrorist organisations has suggested that their fastmoving advances toward Damascus demonstrate just how distracted those countries are by the war in Ukraine and other conflictsThe Biden administration also has said it is not backing the offensive and has not suggested the US military will intervene The US has about 900 troops in the oppositionheld northeast of Syria working with Syrian Kurdish allies to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State extremist groupSyrian opposition activists and regional officials have nonetheless been watching closely for any indication from both the Biden administration and the incomingTrump administration on how the US would handle the sudden rebel advances against AssadAlso Saturday the United Nations special envoy for Syria called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an orderly political transition in SyriaIn his post Trump said Russia is so tied up in Ukraine that it seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria a country they have protected for years He said rebels could possibly force Assad from powerThe presidentelect also condemned the overall US handling of what is a 13year war in Syria but spoke favourably of the routing of Assad and Russian forcesSyria is a mess but is not our friend amp 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 Saturdays postAn influential Syrian opposition activist in Washington Mouaz Moustafa interrupted a briefing to reporters to read Trumps post and appeared to choke up He said Trumps declaration that the US should stay out of the fight was the best outcome that the the Syrians aligned against Assad could hope forRebels have been freeing political detainees of the Assad government from prisons as they advance across Syria taking cities Moustafa pledged to reporters Saturday that opposition forces would be alert for any US detainees among them and do their utmost to protect themMoustafa said that includes Austin Tice an American journalist missing for more than a decade and suspected to be held by AssadThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever