US President-elect Donald Trump today described the situation in Syria as “chaos”, saying that “Washington should have nothing to do with it”, referring to anti-regime groups supported by the Joe Biden administration, which are based in southern Syria near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders and have begun advancing northwards and towards Damascus.
“In any case, Syria is a mess, but it is not our friend and the United States should have nothing to do with it. This is not our fight. Let it play out. Stay out of it,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social.
He added that “opposition fighters in Syria, in an unprecedented move, have completely captured numerous cities, in a highly coordinated offensive, and are now on the outskirts of Damascus, apparently preparing to make a major move towards removing Assad”.
Armed groups opposing the regime of Bashar al-Assad began entering the southern suburbs of Damascus on Saturday.
Fighting regime forces, the groups entered the suburb of Darayya, south of the capital. Fighting between regime forces and anti-regime groups erupted on November 27 in rural areas west of Aleppo.
By November 30, opposition forces had taken control of most of Aleppo city center and established dominance in Idlib province. After intense fighting, the groups took control of Hama city center from regime forces on Thursday.
Anti-regime groups also seized several neighborhoods in the strategically important Homs province, which leads to Damascus, and began to advance.
On Friday, Syrian opposition groups took control of Daraa in southern Syria, near the Jordanian border.
Earlier on Saturday, they took full control of Suwayda province in southern Syria. On the same day, local opposition forces in Quneitra took control of the provincial capital.
