JERUSALEM — The rapid-fire collapse of the Syrian dictatorship of Bashar Assad has engulfed the Biden administration in a brand new wave of criticism about its efforts to assert a win for the top of one of the crucial brutal regimes within the Center East.
Questions abound about whether or not Biden’s international coverage workforce had a major blind spot in Syria, the place roughly 900 U.S. troops and American army contractors function within the northeastern a part of the war-ravaged nation.
Talking from the White House on Sunday, President Biden appeared to assert a much-needed victory for his administration’s international coverage, “Our method has shifted the steadiness of energy within the Center East.”
“It is a direct results of the blows that Ukraine, Israel have delivered upon their very own self-defense with unflagging help of america,” he mentioned.
John Hannah, a senior fellow on the Jewish Institute for Nationwide Safety of America’s Gemunder Heart for Protection and Technique and who served as Vice President Dick Cheney’s nationwide safety adviser, instructed Fox Information Digital, “President Biden’s efforts to take credit score for the deadly weakening of Iran and Hezbollah is, frankly talking, unseemly.”
SYRIAN DICTATOR BASHAR ASSAD FLEES INTO EXILE AS ISLAMIST REBELS CONQUER COUNTRY
TOPSHOT – An image taken on the entrance of the Kweyris army airfield within the jap a part of Aleppo province on December 3, 2024 reveals a portrait of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and a nationwide flag within the rubbish dumpster following the take over of the realm by insurgent teams. A battle monitor on December 1 mentioned Ankara-backed teams seized management of the cities of Safireh and Khanasser southeast of Aleppo from authorities forces, and likewise took the Kweyris army airport. (Picture by RAMI AL SAYED/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
“The tough actuality is that if Israel had succumbed to the Biden administration’s pressures and adopted its recommendation over the previous 14 months of battle, Iran and Hezbollah would have been far stronger and Israel far weaker than they’re in the present day,” mentioned Hannah, who additionally served within the Clinton administration.
“There’s little doubt that President Biden deserves a whole lot of credit score for his unflagging help of Israel’s potential to defend itself towards the multifront battle that Iran and its proxies launched on Oct. 7, 2023,” he continued. “However what he refused to do was present that very same unflagging help of Israel’s potential to really win that battle by inflicting a complete defeat on its enemies, significantly Iran and Hezbollah, exactly the aspect that was required to make final week’s historic occasions in Syria attainable.”
President Biden delivers remarks on the newest developments in Syria on the White Home on Dec. 8, 2024. (Pete Marovich/Getty Pictures)
“The collapse of the Syrian regime is a direct results of the extreme blows we inflicted on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed reporters at a press convention on Monday. “I wish to make clear: challenges are nonetheless anticipated within the marketing campaign, and our hand is outstretched.”
He additionally expressed appreciation to President-elect Donald Trump for recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019.
“The Golan will ceaselessly be an inseparable a part of Israel,” he mentioned, per Israeli information company TPS-IL.
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within the Oval Workplace on the White Home on July 25, 2024 in Washington, DC. Netanyahu’s go to happens because the Israel-Hamas battle reaches almost ten months. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures)
FALL OF SYRIA’S BASHAR ASSAD IS STRATEGIC BLOW TO IRAN AND RUSSIA, EXPERTS SAY
Fox Information Digital has reported that since Hamas terrorists from Gaza slaughtered almost 1,200 folks, together with greater than 40 Individuals, on Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel, the Biden administration sought to curtail Israel’s efforts to root out Hamas, in addition to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, and never launch counterstrikes towards Iran’s regime.
Rebels in northwest Syria seized army automobiles belonging to the regime alongside the route towards Kweris Airport on Dec. 2, 2024. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto by way of APRami Alsayed/NurPhoto by way of AP)
After Biden’s speech, a senior administration official appeared to echo the president’s bravado, “I feel U.S. coverage is a direct contributor to this for the explanations I laid out, and the president laid out, is critical, is necessary, has fully modified the equation within the Center East, and also you noticed that play out right here during the last week.”
Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran professional and senior fellow with the Basis for Protection of Democracies, supplied a unique take, saying, “Respectfully, it’s a bit odd to have an administration, which pulled punches towards the Assad regime in Syria in addition to its patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, attempt to take credit score for the autumn of the Assad regime.”
Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Workplace of the Iranian Supreme Chief by way of AP/File)
“Much less, no more, has outlined Biden’s risk-averse method to the area,” he continued. “Over the previous 12 months, the administration has watched Israel field within the Iran-backed menace community within the area, and in so doing break taboos which have lengthy hindered Washington’s regional coverage.”
Obama-Biden failures
Democrat politicians like former Secretary of State John Kerry and former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi courted Assad before his use of chemical weapons on his inhabitants after the outbreak of the Syrian civil battle in 2011. Former Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson Gordon Johndroe mentioned about Pelosi’s 2007 go to with Assad, “Quite the opposite, these visits have satisfied the Assad regime that its actions in help of terrorists don’t have any penalties.”
Deeply misjudging Center East dictators and radical Islamist actions has plagued the Biden and Obama administrations, in accordance with specialists.
Afghans climb atop a aircraft at Kabul’s airport on Aug. 16, 2021, to flee the nation earlier than the Taliban return to grab energy after the U.S. army withdrawal. (Getty Pictures)
The Biden-Harris administration confronted congressional criticism for the reportedly untimely and botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 that resulted within the radical Islamist Taliban motion absorbing the nation and U.S. weapons.
Islamic State threats
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote on X, “As to U.S. pursuits in Syria, there are over 50,000 ISIS prisoners primarily being held by the Kurdish forces who helped President Trump destroy the caliphate. These ISIS fighters deliberate and executed plots towards the American homeland and our allies. A breakout and reestablishment of ISIS is a significant menace to the U.S. and our buddies. Obama and Biden obtained this unsuitable huge time, requiring President Trump to scrub up their mess.”
On Sunday it was introduced that U.S. Central Command launched dozens of key strikes towards ISIS in a transfer mentioned to cease the fear group from profiting from the fluid state of affairs in Syria.
Displaced Kurds depart a refugee camp within the north of Aleppo, Syria, Dec. 4, 2024. (Ugur Yildirim/DIA Pictures/Abaca/Sipa USA by way of AP Pictures)
The Syrian Kurds have confronted slashing assaults from Turkey and pro-Turkey Syrian Sunni jihadi organizations, together with the Islamic State, over time.
Sinam Sherkany Mohamad, the consultant of the Syrian Democratic Council mission in america, instructed Fox Information Digital, “Defeating Assad was the objective of all Syrians, to construct a pluralistic democratic system that ensures the rights of all ethnic and non secular parts and variety in Syria.”
An Islamic State terrorist (Historical past/Common Pictures Group by way of Getty Pictures)
“ISIS continues to be current within the Syrian desert and has sleeper cells in northern and jap Syria along with the prisons of ISIS fighters and the Al-Holl camp, all of which threaten our folks, whereas warning the present state of affairs might whet ISIS’s urge for food to turn into lively once more,” Mohamad mentioned.
Incoming freshman Rep. Abraham Hamadeh, R-Ariz., instructed Fox Information Digital, “We can’t ignore the influence of President Biden’s weak management, which has eroded deterrence and inspired our allies to hedge their bets. President Trump understood that arming the Kurds and dealing with them to dismantle ISIS was a crucial success. The reward for standing with America ought to by no means be betrayal or abandonment.”
Hamadeh, whose mother and father are Syrian immigrants, added, “We should guarantee Syrian Kurdish civilians usually are not caught within the crossfire and that they’re integral to any peace course of.”
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Max Abrahms, a number one professional on counterterrorism and a tenured professor of political science at Northeastern College, instructed Fox Information Digital, “It is usually anticipated that ISIS will manifest as a non-trivial situation within the new Syria. It’s on this situation the place the Kurds and America have probably the most strategic overlap, as each regard ISIS as a severe menace. The extra ISIS presents as an issue, the stronger the logic of sustaining American forces to work with the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
The U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has been a key participant in stopping the unfold of ISIS in Syria.
