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Trump’s View of Syria and Assad Altered After ‘Unacceptable’ Chemical Attack Trump’s View of Syria and Assad Altered After ‘Unacceptable’ Chemical Attack
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that this week’s devastating chemical weapons attack in Syria had changed his view of the brutal civil war in that country, though he declined to say how the United States would respond. WASHINGTON — President Trump warned on Wednesday that he would not tolerate the “heinous” chemical weapons attack in Syria, opening the door to a greater American role in protecting the population in a vicious civil war that he has always said the United States should avoid.
Mr. Trump said the images of death inside Syria in the aftermath of the chemical attacks “crosses many lines, beyond a red line, many many lines.” And he said that the death of “innocent children, innocent babies, little babies” has made him reassess the situation and Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. The president declined to offer any details about potential action. But he said his horror at the images of “innocent children, innocent babies” choked by poison gas in a rebel-held area of Syria had caused him to reassess his approach. Only days after the White House declared it would be “silly” to persist in trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Mr. Trump said, “My attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much.”
“It’s very, very possible, and I will tell you it has already happened, that my attitude toward Syria and Assad, has changed very much,” Mr. Trump said as he stood next to King Abdullah of Jordan in the Rose Garden for a news conference with reporters. “It crossed a lot of lines for me,” the president declared at a news conference in the Rose Garden, referring to the “red line” that his predecessor, President Barack Obama, had drawn before a 2013 poison-gas attack by Mr. Assad’s forces. Mr. Obama’s failure to strike Syria after that, Mr. Trump claimed, sowed the conditions for this new assault. The estimated death toll was reported to have exceeded 100.
Before the chemical attack, Mr. Trump’s administration had repeatedly said it did not intend to pursue the ouster of Mr. Assad. As recently as Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s spokesman said doing so would be “silly” in the face of the political realities in the country. Syria was one of several places, along with North Korea and Iran, where Mr. Trump on Wednesday threatened a forceful American response. But in all these cases, he declined to disclose options, arguing that there was a need for surprise but stoking worries that his fledgling administration is not ready to deal with multiple threats across the Middle East and Asia.
But Mr. Trump on Wednesday appeared to hint at a shift in that policy, though he offered only vague assertions that the aftermath of the chemical attack is “unacceptable” to him. Pressed on what his policy will be, Mr. Trump said it would be unwise to reveal any plans his administration might have. At the United Nations, Mr. Trump’s ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, warned that the United States might take unilateral action if the Security Council failed to respond to this latest atrocity in Syria. A shift in policy could include airstrikes, which were considered and ultimately rejected by Mr. Obama.
A shift could suggest that Mr. Trump is considering military action through aircraft or missile strikes, much the way that former President Barack Obama debated — and ultimately rejected — options in the wake of a similar chemical attack by the Syrian government in 2013. The president, standing alongside King Abdullah II of Jordan at the news conference, told reporters, “I’m not saying I’m doing anything one way or the other, but I’m certainly not going to be telling you.”
“I’m not saying I’m doing anything one way or the other,” Mr. Trump said, telling the reporter who asked the question: “But I’m certainly not going to be telling you, as much as I respect you.” Mr. Trump’s stern words and lack of specifics attested to a leader, 75 days into his presidency, who is determined to show a more muscular style than Mr. Obama but is grappling with many of the same complexities that dogged his predecessor. And they raised anew a question that Mr. Trump until now has avoided: his criteria for using force, both in a humanitarian cause and in facing a direct, if distant, threat to the United States.
Mr. Trump on Wednesday repeated his belief that Mr. Obama bears blame for the chemical attacks because he declared that the use of chemical weapons by Syria would “cross a red line” and then declined to follow up on that threat by using military force. “It is usually better to threaten unspecific consequences until you are at a more advanced stage of planning,” said Walter Russell Mead, a foreign policy expert at Bard College. “The danger is you become so distracted by these multiple crises that you can’t focus on the most urgent one, or the one where the U.S. actually has a chance of succeeding.”
“I think the Obama administration had a great opportunity to solve this crisis,” Mr. Trump said. “When he didn’t cross that line, after making the threat, I think that set us back a long ways. It was a blank threat.” Mr. Trump’s challenge is complicated by the new upheaval in the ranks of his national security aides, with the abrupt removal of his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, from the senior policy panel of the National Security Council. On Thursday, Mr. Trump is to meet President Xi Jinping of China in Florida, where the president plans to push for more Chinese support in the campaign to pressure North Korea.
At the United Nations on Wednesday, the American ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, used her remarks at an emergency session to blame Russia for blocking a robust response to the chemical weapons attack. Mr. Trump said he viewed North Korea, which tested an intermediate-range missile on Tuesday, as a “big problem.” But he offered no remedies. Similarly, he vowed to send a message to Iran, which is backing pro-Assad militias in Syria and which he said had benefited from a “one sided” nuclear deal with the United States negotiated by the Obama administration. But he did not say what form it would take.
The United States, France and Britain have accused the Syrian government of being responsible for the attack and have bitterly criticized Russia — Syria’s main ally in the six-year-old war — for objecting to a resolution condemning the attack. At times, the Trump administration has seemed at a loss for words in responding to fast-moving events. When North Korea launched its missile, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson issued a statement so cryptic that it left much of Washington confused.
Russia has said insurgents may have been responsible or the attack may have been fabricated to embarrass Mr. Assad. “North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile,” the statement said. “The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.”
“Time and time again Russia uses the same false narrative to deflect attention from their allies in Damascus,” Ms. Haley said. “How many more children have to die before Russia cares?” Until this week, North Korea and Iran both figured higher on Mr. Trump’s list of pressing foreign problems than Syria’s civil war.
She closed her remarks with an ominous warning. “When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action,” she said. “For the sake of the victims, I hope the rest of the council is finally willing to do the same.” In September 2013, when Mr. Obama confronted a chemical weapons attack not unlike the one Mr. Trump faces today, Mr. Trump said on Twitter: “President Obama, do not attack Syria. There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your ‘powder’ for another (and more important) day!” As a candidate, Mr. Trump said repeatedly that forcing Mr. Assad out of power was not as urgent a priority for the United States as vanquishing the Islamic State.
Mr. Trump pledged to work with Jordan and other allies in the Middle East to defeat the Islamic State. Nothing, it seems, affects Mr. Trump’s judgments as much as what he sees on television. On Wednesday, he said the images of death inside Syria affected him, presumably in ways they did not under similar circumstances four years ago. “I will tell you that attack on children had a big, big impact on me,” he said. “That was a horrible, horrible thing.”
“We are both leaders on that,” Mr. Trump said, adding that “it will be a shorter fight than a lot of people are thinking about, believe me.” Mr. Trump has declined to define what kind of humanitarian crisis would prompt him to act. If he considers military action in Syria, he is likely to face the same reality Mr. Obama did: While it is possible to bomb Mr. Assad’s warplanes, runways and military installations — something some senior members of the Obama administration now wish they had done — any longer-term solution would require a major presence of troops and air power.
Mr. Trump called the king a “tireless advocate” for peace in the Middle East and said he hoped that the two countries could work with Israelis and Palestinians to achieve peace between them. Despite his earlier advice to Mr. Obama not to act, Mr. Trump now says his predecessor missed an opportunity to solve the Syria conflict by failing to enforce his “red line in the sand.”
Mr. Trump’s appearance beside King Abdullah came amid a flurry of deepening international crises in Syria and North Korea, and just hours after news broke of the president’s decision to remove Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, from a key committee at the National Security Council. “When he didn’t cross that line after making the threat,” Mr. Trump said, “I think that set us back a long ways, not only in Syria, but in many other parts of the world, because it was a blank threat.”
Mr. Trump took questions from reporters after new reports that North Korea had fired a ballistic missile on Tuesday night, increasing concerns about Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, on the eve of a summit between Mr. Trump and Xi Jinping, the president of China. Mr. Trump was similarly withering about Mr. Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. He hinted that because Congress had not ratified the accord, the new administration could somehow unravel it. The agreement, however, is not a treaty and thus does not require congressional ratification. Privately, White House officials have said the president is unlikely to rip it up.
Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson issued a short statement after the test, saying bluntly: “The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.” But Mr. Trump said he did plan to deal with Hezbollah, which is backing the Assad government in Syria, and with other Iranian-backed militias that are fighting in Syria and Iraq. “You will see,” he told a reporter. “They will have a message. You will see what the message will be.”
The decision to remove Mr. Bannon from the principals committee at the National Security Council reverses one of the president’s most contentious early national security actions. His original National Security Council included Mr. Bannon on the key committee, but demoted the role of several intelligence officials. On Thursday, Mr. Trump will face perhaps the most complex diplomatic challenge of his presidency in playing host to Mr. Xi at his private club in Palm Beach. He plans to make North Korea the centerpiece of the meeting, pressuring the Chinese to do more to compel the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, to give up his nuclear weapons.
In the meetings with King Abdullah, Mr. Trump planned to talk about his hopes for negotiating a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians with the help of Arab neighbors. While such an accord has eluded other presidents, Mr. Trump has expressed confidence that he and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, can bring the warring parties together. Mr. Trump has never publicly addressed the central conundrum: While he wants North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, he does not want to open negotiations. That means he will either have to commit to using force or publicly back down by entering into another set of talks — two options his administration has found unpalatable.
Jordan could be important to any negotiation. Home to many Palestinian refugees, it is one of just two Arab states with a peace treaty with Israel and acts as custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. King Abdullah has long been viewed as one of the most moderate of Arab leaders and close to a string of American presidents. He recently hosted Jason Greenblatt, Mr. Trump’s envoy, in Jordan. Apart from some messages on Twitter and Mr. Tillerson’s own statements during a trip to Seoul, South Korea’s capital, two weeks ago — when he said the United States would negotiate with North Korea only after it gave up its weapons and missiles — the Trump administration has said very little about North Korea, quite deliberately.
King Abdullah’s visit made him the first foreign leader to talk with Mr. Trump twice in person since the president took office. Fearing a violent backlash if Mr. Trump followed through with promises to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the king flew uninvited to Washington in January to buttonhole the president at a prayer breakfast and implore him to hold off. Mr. Trump obliged and has indicated he is rethinking such a move. Mr. Tillerson has made clear he will be a diplomat of few words, preferring to do his deals behind closed doors and open himself to as little probing of the strategy as possible. But in the absence of much public comment, American allies seem confused about the Trump administration’s strategy of coercive diplomacy.
But Mr. Trump has abandoned American insistence on the creation of a Palestinian state as the basis for any peace deal, a key condition for Jordan and other Arab states. Mr. Trump has said he could accept such a two-state solution but would also be fine with a one-state solution, if that was agreed to by the two sides. “The conundrum,” said Robert S. Litwak, the director of studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, “is that North Korea never acts except under pressure, but pressure never works.”
For King Abdullah, the visit was also important as the civil war in Syria escalates. Jordan has absorbed more than 600,000 Syrian refugees and become especially dependent on American and western assistance to cope with the influx.