“At long last, the Assad regime has fallen,” Biden said.
The United States is keeping a cautious but optimistic eye on the situation on the ground after rebel forces forced now-former President Bashar al-Assad to flee Syria, putting an end to a half century of despotic rule over Syria.
President Joe Biden, speaking from the White House on Sunday, said Assad’s downfall simultaneously marks an end to 13 years of brutal civil war and the start of a hopeful but uncharted future for the Syrian people.
“At long last, the Assad regime has fallen,” Biden said. “This regime brutalized, and tortured, and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians. The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice. It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country.”
Assad, who sought and received political asylum from Russia, was forced from power over the weekend by a collection of armed rebel groups seemingly sprung to action by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing distraction over Ukraine and a weakened hand reaching out from Tehran, after Iranian-backed terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah were decimated in their attempts to assault Israel.
“There’s a lot happening in the middle east,” Biden noted.
Iran, its proxies, and Russia, Biden said, are “far weaker today than when I took office” as a result of their aggression toward Israel and Ukraine and following U.S. led sanctions and ongoing military support from allies.
Because of U.S. sanctions, and while Ukraine and Israel were fighting “upon their own self defense with unflagging support of the United States,” Biden said, “for the first time ever, neither Russia, nor Iran, nor Hezbollah could defend this abhorrent regime in Syria.
