WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Friday vehemently rejected Russia’s military actions in Syria as self-defeating and dismissed the idea that Moscow was strengthening its hand in the region. He vowed not to let the conflict become a U.S.-Russia “proxy war.”
At a White House news conference, Obama pledged to stay the course with his strategy of supporting moderate rebels who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad, but he dodged questions about whether the U.S. would protect them if they came under Russian attack.
Russia’s dramatic entry into the Syrian civil war, after a year of airstrikes by the U.S. and its coalition partners, has raised the specter of dangerous confrontations in the skies over Syria. And it prompted a question at the news conference as to whether Putin was outfoxing the U.S. at a time when the American-led military campaign in Syria has failed to weaken the Islamic State.
Obama dismissed that idea with an expression of disdain.
“This is not a smart strategic move on Russia’s part,” he said, referring to Putin’s decision to “double down” on his support for Assad by stationing warplanes, air defenses, tanks and troops in Syria. Moscow says it is targeting Islamic State forces and fighting terrorism, but U.S. leaders are skeptical of that and Obama said the Russian president has overplayed his hand.
