Obama efforts to oust Assad pushed to back burner

WASHINGTON — By President Barack Obama’s own admission, U.S. efforts to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad have been pushed to the back burner by a bombing campaign against Islamic State militants that could ultimately help him stay in power.

“There’s a more immediate concern that has to be dealt with,” Obama said of Assad in a broadcast interview that aired Sunday.

While the White House continues to call for Assad’s departure and has consistently condemned his actions in a three-year civil war, diplomatic negotiations to oust him have largely stalled and Obama has shown no appetite for using military power to force him out. Even when Obama was considering strikes last year in retaliation for Assad’s chemical weapons use — a plan he ultimately rejected — officials made clear that regime change was not their goal.

But Assad’s future is coming under fresh scrutiny as the U.S. and its allies launch airstrikes against militants who have gained a stronghold in Syria amid the chaos of the civil war that has left 200,000 people dead. Given that the Islamic State group is one of the Syrian government’s strongest opponents, the strikes have created an unexpected alignment between Obama and Assad that the Syrian president is seeking to exploit in order to gain legitimacy.

Syria’s cauldron of twisted alliances has long made Obama reluctant to take military action to end the civil war, warning advisers that crossing that threshold could leave the U.S. responsible for figuring out Syria’s political future. His rationale for the current airstrike campaign, both in Syria and Iraq, has been described narrowly as a bid to destroy the threat the Islamic State could pose to the West if left unchecked.

Still, Obama acknowledged in his interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that there was a contradiction in both wanting Assad out of power and seeking to degrade his strongest opponent. Obama offered no strategy for keeping Assad from gaining ground, though White House officials later pointed to plans to train and arm more moderate opposition forces who are battling both Assad and the Islamic State group, a process expected to take several months.

Even if the U.S. blueprint for defeating the Islamic State group should succeed, some Middle East analysts say that as long as Assad remains in power, Syria will remain a hotbed for Sunni extremists seeking to oust his government.

“You can’t keep that from happening in any light footprint way without dealing with the fact that Bashar is drawing them in,” said Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute, a think tank focused on U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Frederic Hof, the Obama administration’s former special representative on Syria, said that while it’s understandable that Obama may seek to focus first on degrading the Islamic State, the group “cannot be fully neutralized in Syria without neutralizing its biggest recruiter and collaborator: the Assad regime.”

The Assad government has so far used its unexpected alignment with the United States to cast itself as a legitimate partner in the fight against terrorism in the region. During a speech at the United Nations on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said his country and those in the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State should “together stop this ideology and its exporters.”

The Obama administration has insisted that it is not coordinating military strategy or intelligence with the Assad government, though U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power did give her counterpart a heads-up before the Pentagon began the first round of airstrikes against the Islamic State. Administration officials say Obama would go after Assad’s relatively robust air defenses if Syria were to target American planes launching the airstrikes.

Despite the risks in allowing Assad to maintain control of much of Syria, some regional experts say Obama should also take stock of what’s happened in Iraq and Libya, where the U.S. backed the ouster of dictators only to see the governments that followed fail to stand on their own.

“If you destroy the central government, you’ve got the Iraq problem or the Libya problem, which is you’ve got no state left,” said Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Lynnwood
Crash in Lynnwood fully blocks Highway 99

The crash, on Highway 99 at 176th Street SW, fully blocked southbound lanes. Traffic was diverted to 168th Street SW.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.