Hillary Clinton plans to order a full review of the United States’ strategy in Syria as one of her first priorities if elected President.
One of her foreign policy advisers, Jeremy Bash, said she would seek to end Bashar al-Assad’s “murderous” regime despite waning political will to oust the autocratic Syrian “President.”
He said dealing with Syria would be Ms Clinton’s “first key task” if elected and she would work to get Assad “out of there”.
“It is a murderous regime that violates human rights; that has violated international law; used chemical weapons against his own people; has killed hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children.”
Barack Obama, David Cameron and international allies were vocal with their criticism of the Syrian regime’s human rights abuses and war crimes at the start of the conflict in 2011 and the UK almost launched an intervention against Assad two years later.
But following the rise of the so-called ISIS and links between its Syrian bases and attacks in France and Belgium, calls for the Assad’s removal have been drowned out by a move towards co-operation in the fight against global terrorism.
In a mark of decreasing hostility, the US and Russia – Assad’s staunch ally – were drawing up an agreement on bombing al-Nusra Front, which has since attempted a re-brand disassociating itself from al-Qaeda.
Echoing Angela Merkel and other European leaders, Ms Clinton has previously called for “safe zones” where displaced Syrian civilians can live without fear of attack, but methods of implementing them remain unclear.
Her campaign website also outlines policy on defeating ISIS’ strongholds in Syria and Iraq by intensifying the coalition air campaign, and support for Arab and Kurdish allies on the ground.
“A Clinton administration will not shrink from making clear to the world exactly what the Assad regime is,” he told The Telegraph.
