‘Assad Is Gone’: Trump Responds To Syria’s Downfall, Calls For Russia-Ukraine Ceasefire

President-elect Donald Trump responded to the downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Sunday, suggesting that Russia lost a key ally in the Middle East because of its war with Ukraine.

Assad reportedly fled Syria over the weekend as terrorist rebel forces took over the capital of Damascus. Assad’s regime fell after rebel forces led by the terror group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) blitzed across the country in a sudden resurgence of fighting in Syria’s civil war, largely stalled in recent years.

“Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer,” Trump wrote. “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.”

“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 continued. “Likewise, [Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky] and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians.”

“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. 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. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting!” Trump said.

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Assad ascended to the presidency in 2000 and kept his hold on power through more than a decade of civil war with the help of allies in Iran and Russia. Recent conflicts depleted resources among his allies and left Assad in a weakened state that terrorist rebels, who had been restricted to Syria’s northwest region for years, took advantage of to topple the Syrian government.

The terrorist rebels are led by HTS, which grew out of an offshoot of al-Qaeda. HTS later split with al-Qaeda, but earned its own designation as a U.S.-recognized terror group in 2018. HTS has been backed by Turkey in its fight to topple Assad.

Trump earlier called for the United States to stay out of the conflict in Syria.

“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT,” Trump said in a post on X. “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Saturday that the Biden administration will not get involved “militarily” in the Syrian conflict, however, the administration will seek to protect U.S. interests in the region and stop a resurgence of ISIS.

“The first, critically is, do not let this allow for the resurgence of ISIS, and we are going to take steps to make sure that that happens,” Sullivan said at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “Second, we do have a profound interest in shoring up the security of our partners in the region, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, others – we’ll do that. And third, we will attend to the humanitarian situation because we believe that we have an obligation to do that.”