ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - United States President-elect Donald Trump on Monday described the recent rebellion in Syria that culminated with the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad, as an “unfriendly takeover” by Turkey.
“I think Turkey is very smart… Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost,” Trump told reporters during a press conference at his residence in Florida.
In late November, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led a lightning-quick offensive against the Syrian army, seizing the northern cities of Aleppo, Hama, and Homs before capturing the capital Damascus in less than two weeks, as Assad fled the country, ending over five decades of Baathist rule in less than two weeks and bringing the country’s 13-year long civil war to an end.
Trump said that the groups that launched the offensive “are controlled by Turkey.”
Ousted President Assad and his family fled Syria following the offensive and were granted asylum in Russia.
Assad said in a statement from Moscow on Monday that he did not plan to leave Syria, and Russia arranged his evacuation from a military base in Latakia, where he was overseeing the operations on the last few days of the operation.
“I can say that Assad was a butcher, what he did to children,” Trump said.
Before the collapse of the regime, Trump said in a statement on Truth Social that the US “should have nothing to do” with what is happening in Syria.
“This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved,” Trump said.
He said Russia is not able to help its ally the Syrian government because of its war in Ukraine and that ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad might be “the best thing that can happen” to Moscow.
Following Assad’s crackdown on protests in 2011 which triggered a bloody civil war, Turkey was a bitter rival of Syria and a staunch supporter of rebel groups such as the Syrian National Army (SNA) that controlled swathes of the northwest of the country. It also carried out military strikes inside Syria.
900 US troops in Syria
Trump said that during his first term in office, there were about 5,000 troops along the border in Syria, which he said were between two major armies.
“We had 5,000 troops along the border, and I asked a couple of generals, so we have an army of 250,000 in Syria, and you had an army of 400,000 [in Turkey]. Turkey is a major force,” he said.
Trump noted that he ordered the withdrawal of the troops so they won’t be “wiped out” in case of a clash between the two armies.
“I moved them out because I took a lot of heat. And you know what happened? Nothing. Nothing. I saved a lot of lives. Now we have 900. They put some back, but 900,” he said.
The 900 US troops in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019. The group remains a security threat, carrying out attacks on military targets and civilians on both sides of the border.
