Former U.S. President Barack Obama admitted in an interview on Monday that his policy on Syria ended up being "an imperfect solution" in terms of eliminating the chemical weapons of the Assad regime, adding that it took "political courage" not to bomb Syria after the use of chemical weapons there.
The remarks were made in an interview between the 44th president and Jack Schlossberg, grandson of 35th president John F. Kennedy. "I actually think that the issue that required the most political courage was the decision not to bomb Syria after the chemical weapons use had been publicized and rather to negotiate them removing chemical weapons from Syria," he said in the interview
"Now, we know subsequently that some remained, so it was an imperfect solution. But what we also know is that 99 percent of huge chemical weapons stockpiled were removed without us having to fire a shot."
Obama said that as president, he discovered "that you generally get praised for taking military action, and you're often criticized for not doing so."
"And it wasn't a slam dunk, but I thought that it made sense for a variety of reasons for us to see if we could actually try to eliminate the prospect of large-scale chemical weapons use rather than the political expenditure of a one-time shot."
The Assad regime carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on April 4 in northern Syria. The attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun killed scores of people and prompted the Trump administration to launch a cruise missile strike on an Assad air base in response, its first direct assault on the regime in the conflict.
Recently, Obama's Syria policy has been getting much criticism, especially from the Trump administration. Yet the evidence shows that Trump's administration is also falling in the trap of following its predecessor's footsteps.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking to journalists on the return trip at the conclusion of his official visit to India, said the current U.S. policy in Syria of aiding the PKK terrorist group's affiliate, the People's Protection Units (YPG), was a relic of the previous Obama government that he hoped would be drastically changed by the current Donald Trump administration.
"I see what is taking place in Syria as the remnants of the Obama era, with U.S. commanders in the region persisting in following the same policies," Erdoğan said.
Meanwhile, Obama administration holdovers in the U.S. government rushed to encourage Trump to directly arm the YPG ahead of Erdoğan's planned visit, fearing that Erdoğan could personally convince Trump otherwise, multiple Turkish officials told Daily Sabah.
"We came to the conclusion that Erdoğan's visit was the main reason for the U.S. Central Command and Obama appointees to rush such a decision; they were concerned by the fact that Erdoğan could very well talk Trump out of this," said a Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with government protocol.
Several U.S. media outlets previously reported that the Raqqa plan was initially designed by the Obama administration, and was put on hold after Trump transition officials warned them about the consequences. Obama in 2012 warned Assad that using chemical weapons would cross "a red line" with the U.S.
The United Nations Security Council in September 2013 voted to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles, starting a removal process that ended in 2014.
