WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Sunday that the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is a “fundamental act of justice” after decades of repression, but it was “a moment of risk and uncertainty” for the Middle East.
Biden spoke at the White House hours after rebel groups completed a takeover of the country following more than a dozen years of violent civil war and decades of leadership by Assad and his family. Biden said the United States was monitoring reports of the whereabouts of Assad, with Russian state media saying he had fled to Moscow and received asylum from his longtime ally.
The outgoing Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump were working to make sense of new threats and opportunities across the Middle East.
Biden credited action by the U.S. and its allies for weakening Syria's backers — Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. He said “for the first time” that they could no longer defend Assad's grip on power.
“Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East," Biden said, after a meeting with his national security team.
Trump said Sunday that Assad had fled because close ally Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, “was not interested in protecting him any longer.”
Those comments on Trump's social media platform came a day after he used another post to decry the possibility of the U.S. intervening militarily in Syria to aid the rebels, declaring, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT." The Biden administration said it had no intention of intervening.
The U.S has about 900 troops in Syria, including forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State group. Biden said he intended for those troops to remain, adding that U.S. forces on Sunday conducted “precision air strikes" on IS camps and operations in Syria.
U.S. Central Command said the operation hit more than 75 targets.
“We’re clear-eyed about the fact that ISIS will try and take advantage of any vacuum to reestablish its credibility, and create a safe haven," Biden said, using a different acronym for the group. "We will not let that happen.”
The Syrian opposition that brought down Assad is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the U.S. says is a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida, although the group says it has since broken ties with al-Qaida.
“We will remain vigilant,” Biden said. “Make no mistake, some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human rights abuses.” He added that the groups are “saying the right things now.”
“But as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their words, but their actions,” Biden said.
A senior Biden administration official, when asked about contact with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leaders after Assad's departure, said Washington was in contact with Syrian groups of all kinds. The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity, also said the U.S. has focused over the past several days on chemical weapons that had been controlled by the Assad government, aiming to ensure they were secured.
Still, Assad's fall adds to an already tense situation throughout much of region on many fronts — including Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza and its fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Like Biden, Trump, who takes office in five-plus weeks, made a connection between the upheaval in Syria and Russia's war in Ukraine, noting that Assad's allies in Moscow, as well as in Iran, the main sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah, “are in a weakened state right now.”
Vice President-elect JD Vance, a veteran of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, wrote on social media Sunday to express skepticism about the insurgents.
“Many of ‘the rebels’ are a literal offshoot of ISIS. One can hope they’ve moderated. Time will tell,” he said.
Trump has suggested that Assad's ouster can advance the prospects for an end to fighting in Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in February 2022.
The president-elect wrote that Putin's government “lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine” and Trump called for an immediate ceasefire, a day after meeting in Paris with the French and Ukrainian leaders.
Daniel B. Shapiro, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said the American military presence will continue in eastern Syria but was “solely to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS and has nothing to do with other aspects of this conflict.”
“We call on all parties in Syria to protect civilians, particularly those from Syria’s minority communities to respect international military norms and to work to achieve a resolution to include the political settlement,” Shapiro said.
“Multiple actors in this conflict have a terrible track record, to include Assad’s horrific crimes, Russia’s indiscriminate aerial bomb bombardment, Iranian-back militia involvement and the atrocities of ISIS," he added.
Shapiro also said “no one should shed any tears over the Assad regime.”
As they pushed toward the Syrian capital of Damascus, the opposition forces freed political detainees from government prisons. The family of missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice renewed calls to find him.
“To everyone in Syria that hears this, please remind people that we’re waiting for Austin,” Tice’s mother, Debra, said in comments that hostage advocacy groups spread on social media. "We know that when he comes out, he’s going to be fairly dazed & he’s going to need lots of care & direction. Direct him to his family please!”
Tice disappeared in 2012 outside Damascus as the civil war was intensifying.
"We’ve remained committed to returning him to his family,” Biden said at the White House. "We believe he’s alive, we think we can get him back but we have no direct evidence to that yet. And Assad should be held accountable.”
The president added: “We have to identify where he is."
The U.S. has no new evidence that Tice is alive but continues to operate under the assumption that he is, according to a U.S. official. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, added that the U.S. will continue to work to identify Tice's whereabouts and to try to bring him home .
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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Manama, Bahrain, and Aamer Madhani and AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.