Syrian President Bashar al-Assad suggested he would consider President-elect Trump an ally if he joins the fight against “terror” in Syria.
“We cannot tell anything about what he’s going to do, but if … he is going to fight the terrorists, of course we are going to be ally, natural ally in that regard with the Russian, with the Iranian, with many other countries,” Assad told Portuguese state television, according to Agence France-Presse.
In his first interview since winning the presidential election last week, Trump said the U.S. should shift its focus in Syria off removing Assad and onto fighting the Islamic State.
“My attitude was you’re fighting Syria, Syria is fighting ISIS, and you have to get rid of ISIS. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria, and now you have Iran, which is becoming powerful, because of us, is aligned with Syria,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
“Now we’re backing rebels against Syria, and we have no idea who these people are,” he added. “We end up fighting Russia, fighting Syria” if the U.S. goes after Assad, Trump said.
