Top Biden official says US will not jump into Syrian fighting
US President Joe Biden’s national security advisor says the country does not plan on getting involved in Syria’s civil war.
“The United States is not going to … militarily dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war,” Jake Sullivan tells an audience in California.
He adds that the US will keep acting as necessary to keep the Islamic State from exploiting openings presented by the fighting.
Sullivan points to rebels’ quick gains as proof of just how weak Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s patrons have become due to the recently concluded war in Lebanon and the invasion of Ukraine.
“Assad’s backers — Iran, Russia and Hezbollah — have all been weakened and distracted,” Sullivan tells the annual gathering of national security officials, defense companies and lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
“None of them are prepared to provide the kind of support to Assad that they provided in the past,” he adds.
Robert Wilkie, President-elect Donald Trump’s defense transition chief and a former secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, says during the same panel that the collapse of the “murderous Assad regime” would be a major blow to Iran’s power.
