(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Donald Trump said a withdrawal from embattled Syria might “be the best thing that can happen” to Russia, while saying US troops shouldn’t get involved in the fighting.
With rebel forces opposed to President Bashar Al-Assad retaking a string of Syrian cities, Trump commented on their advance in a post Saturday on his Truth Social platform that included an all-caps admonition that “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.”
Russia “seems incapable” of stopping the rebel advance in Syria “because they are so tied up in Ukraine,” Trump said. “But now they are, like possibly Assad himself, being forced out, and it may actually be the best thing that can happen to them.”
About 900 US troops are deployed to Syria, primarily in eastern and northeastern Syria, as part of a mission to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, according to the Pentagon.
Assad has stayed in power with backing from Russia and Iran but almost three years into his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has given no clear indication of support or deployment of troops to prop up Assad.
Russia intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015, fighting alongside militias backed by Iran to prop up the regime of their mutual ally Assad.
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