U.S. President-elect Donald Trump responded on Sunday to the downfall of Syrian President Bashar Assad, noting that the regime’s 54-year reign ended as Russia “was not interested in protecting him any longer.”
“Assad is gone. He has fled his country,” the president-elect wrote on his Truth Social website.
Trump continued, “There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.”
The Syrian rebels succeeded because Assad’s allies, Russia and Iran, are “in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success,” he said.
Trump urged Ukraine and Russia to commit to an immediate ceasefire and peace talks, saying that “too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse.”
"[President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,” Trump said. “I know [Russian President] Vladimir [Putin] well. This is his time to act. China can help. The world is waiting,” concluded Trump.
Assad fled Damascus after rebel groups stormed the capital, ending his family’s rule. Syria’s army notified officers on Sunday that the regime had fallen, an officer who was told of the move told Reuters.
Footage verified by CNN showed rebel fighters entering the presidential palace in Damascus on Sunday morning, firing in the air in celebration.
A rebel spokesman declared in a statement carried on state television on Sunday: “Damascus has been liberated, and the tyrant Bashar Assad has been overthrown,” adding that “prisoners in regime prisons have been released.”
An official in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told The New York Times that the fall of Assad’s rule was a “Berlin wall moment” for Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Houthis and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups in the region.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Saturday that the Assad regime had been largely abandoned by Moscow and Tehran.
Assad’s brutal and repressive rule left his government vulnerable and the people of Syria “fed up,” explained Sullivan. At the same time, the wars in Ukraine and Lebanon had robbed Assad of his allies’ backing, he added.
U.S. President Joe Biden is closely monitoring the “extraordinary events in Syria” and the administration has been in touch with regional partners regarding the issue, the White House said on Sunday.
