U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, saying he can’t speak for President-elect Trump, said he couldn’t promise fellow ministers at a counter-Islamic State summit in London that the United States would continue to lead the 60-nation coalition battling the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.
“I can’t give assurances. I can’t speak for the next administration,” Carter said at a post-summit news conference with his British counterpart Michael Fallon.
But Carter said he was confident the military campaign would be fully supported by the Trump administration because it’s both sound and working.
“It’s logical. It makes sense,” Carter said. “Therefore, I expect that logic will recommend itself to the future leadership of the United States even as it has recommended itself to the current leadership of the United States.”
Fallon showed little concern that Trump would back away from the current plan.
“This is a global threat, and I have no doubt that the next U.S. administration will step up to its traditional role of global leadership,” Fallon said. “I think my answer would be … is to aim off the campaign rhetoric and look at what the new administration actually does.”
Fallon also backed Trump’s nominee to succeed Carter, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis.
Mattis, a former NATO commander, is well-known to the British national security establishment, and Fallon said that in itself was reassuring.
“I have no doubt, too, that he will be ready to continue to lead the campaign coalition,” Fallon said.
One possible change signaled by Trump, based on his public statements that regime change will no longer be a part of America’s foreign policy, is a possible willingness to accept Bashar Assad as leader of Syria.
That, Fallon rejected out of hand.
“We don’t see a future of President Assad in Syria,” Fallon said. “Even if he defeats the opposition in Aleppo, there is no victory in bombing hospitals and restricting humanitarian aid and ending up in a country that you only control 40 percent of and is, you know, half destroyed with millions dispersed and hundreds of thousands killed.”
Fallon said Britain will continue to seek political settlement in Syria “that is genuinely pluralist, that can involve all sectors of Syria society, but not Assad himself.”