WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Sunday that the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is a “fundamental act of justice” after decades of repression, but it was “a moment of risk and uncertainty” for the Middle East.
Biden spoke at the White House hours after rebel groups completed a takeover of the country following more than a dozen years of violent civil war and decades of leadership by Assad and his family. Biden said the United States was monitoring reports of the whereabouts of Assad, with Russian state media saying he had fled to Moscow and received asylum from his longtime ally.
The outgoing Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump were working to make sense of new threats and opportunities across the Middle East.
Biden credited action by the U.S. and its allies for weakening Syria’s backers—Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. He said “for the first time” that they could no longer defend Assad’s grip on power.
“Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East,” Biden said, after a meeting with his national security team.
Trump said Sunday that Assad had fled because close ally Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, “was not interested in protecting him any longer.”
Those comments on Trump’s social media platform came a day after he used another post to decry the possibility of the U.S. intervening militarily in Syria to aid the rebels, declaring, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.” The Biden administration said it had no intention of intervening.
The U.S has about 900 troops in Syria, including forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State group. Biden said he intended for those troops to remain, adding that U.S. forces on Sunday conducted “precision air strikes” on IS camps and operations in Syria.
U.S. Central Command said the operation hit more than 75 targets.
