Syrian state-run media claims last week's U.S. airstrike was a new effort “to support terrorism." The U.S. claims pro-Assad forces were trying to take back major oil fields liberated from ISIS militants last year.
Dr. Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, calls it a complicated game of whose side are you on?
“We of course have not directly targeted Bashar al Assad's regime, but we're targeting militia groups and other groups that are in support of him and also have engaged in atrocities,” he says.
But Addicott says the Trump administration is looking at the bigger picture.
“Our main concern is not really Assad, it's Iran,” he says. “The Iranians want to extend their influence, and we've seen what happened with Israel recently, that's the next danger zone.”
The U.S. for now must allow Assad to remain in power because his close ties with Russia. “He's a bad guy, but he's not attacking us,” says Addicott. “It's not in our interest to try to remove him, because if you remove him you're going to have even more instability in the region.”