ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that “something should happen” with President Bashar al-Assad after a deadly poison gas attack in Syria, as the Pentagon and the White House studied military options.
Facing his biggest foreign crisis since taking office in January, Trump suggested he may be taking a stronger stance against Assad, an ally of Iran and Russia, whose country has been torn apart by six years of civil war.
“I think what Assad did is terrible,” Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One en route to Florida.
“I think what happened in Syria is a disgrace to humanity and he’s there, and I guess he’s running things, so something should happen,” Trump said, stopping short of calling on Assad to leave office.
The poison gas attack on Tuesday in the rebel-held northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed at least 70 people, many of them children.
Washington has blamed the attack on the Syrian government, putting it at odds with Russia, which has air and ground forces in Syria. The Syrian government has denied it was behind the attack.
Striking Assad could put the United States on a collision course with Russia, which intervened on the Syrian president’s side in 2015, turning the tide of the conflict against mostly Sunni Muslim rebel groups in his favor.
Trump has until now focused his Syria policy almost exclusively on defeating ISIS terrorists in northern Syria, where U.S. special forces are supporting Arab and Kurdish armed groups.
Only last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the U.S. diplomatic policy on Syria for now was no longer focused on making Assad leave power, one of former President Barack Obama’s aims.
