WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Trump administration is allegedly prepared to accept Assad’s continued rule until Syria’s next scheduled presidential election in 2021, New Yorker magazine reported earlier this week, citing US and European officials. The State Department on Tuesday, however, refuted these reports and said that the United States believes that the future of Syria will not include Assad.
"It's a bit of a joke to premise… the thesis that it is up to Trump, or the United States, to decide who rules Syria," former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman said on Wednesday. "It seems to me that those who brought Assad his victory against the forces that shed so much blood to dislodge him have decided that."
The conflict in Syria had inflicted unprecedented destruction on the country’s infrastructure and suffering of its people, and generated several million refugees, Freeman added.
"Syria has been maimed, but not slain by the civil war that others, including the United States, fueled on its territory," Freeman said.
Chas Freeman is a lifetime director of the Atlantic Council and served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’affaires at the US embassies in Beijing and Bangkok. Freeman also held several senior level positions at the Defense Department.
The views and opinions expressed by Chas Freeman are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
