Does Trump’s Syria Strategy Have Support?

AlArabiya English

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00:00In your capacity as the State Department's top Middle East diplomat back in 2024, in December of 2024,

00:08you met the new Syrian leader and the new leaders in Damascus.

00:13The United States at the time offered that new leadership support,

00:18and it seems the Trump administration has continued in the same vein.

00:21So can I assume that you agree with President Trump's strategy of welcoming President Ahmad al-Shara

00:28into the international fold?

00:30Yes, I do.

00:31Look, I think the smart thing to do was to give him the space to succeed or fail,

00:39give him the space to engage forthrightly in the economic realm with regional states

00:48who were very vested in the success of the new Syria and in stabilizing that country.

00:56I mean, you were very quick getting to Damascus in December of last year.

01:02I'm just wondering why you thought it was necessary to get there as quickly as you did

01:07after the downfall of Bashar al-Assad on the 8th of December.

01:10Look, I mean, it was a once-in-a-generation sort of event that you had 50-plus years

01:17of a really brutal family enterprise end in a breathtaking fashion.

01:25And the first opportunity for that country alongside Lebanon, which was starting on its

01:32own transition, political transition.

01:34So it was a critical moment to lay eyes on and engage with this new leader, whom we knew

01:44at a distance, whom we knew principally through the prism of his previous career, fighting U.S.

01:52forces and then gradually consolidating power in Syria over a very large swath of the country

02:00and 4 million people.

02:02So it was quite important for us to have an understanding of what he was about, what he

02:07planned, and report back, including sharing that set of impressions.

02:14And they were impressions.

02:15It was an hour and a half engagement.

02:18So it couldn't be more than that, but sharing that with the incoming team.

02:24So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:26So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:27So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:28So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:29So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:30So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:31So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:32So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:33So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:34So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:35So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:36So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:37So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:38So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:39So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:40So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:41So it was an hour and a half engagement.

02:42So it was an hour and a half engagement.

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