News / Politics

Sanders slams Clinton for regime change policy in Syria

Sunday, 20 December 2015 10:22 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 20 December 2015 10:27 AM ]

US Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton (R) and Bernie Sanders participate in the Democratic Presidential Debate hosted by ABC News at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on December 19, 2015. (AFP photo)

US Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has criticized his rival Hillary Clinton for insisting on the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"I worry that Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change," Sanders said during the Democratic presidential debate on Saturday evening.

Clinton is too hawkish and is advocating overly aggressive strategies in the Middle East, he added.

“Yes, we could get rid of Saddam Hussein, but that destabilized the entire region. Yes, we could get rid of Qaddafi, a terrible dictator [in Libya], but that created a vacuum for ISIS. Yes, we could get rid of Assad tomorrow, but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit ISIS,” Sanders stated, using another name for the Daesh (ISIL) terror group.

He argued that the US should stop trying to topple the Assad government in Syria, suggesting that Washington’s “primary focus now must be destroying ISIS.”

In response, Clinton said that ignoring Assad would actually undermine the fight against Daesh terrorists.

“We will not get the support on the ground in Syria to dislodge ISIS if the fighters there who are not associated with ISIS but whose principal goal of getting rid of Assad don't believe there is a political, diplomatic channel that is ongoing,” the Democratic front-runner said.

The US and its allies have time and again called for Assad’s removal amid criticism from other countries including Russia and Iran.

On Friday, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted a resolution to endorse an international effort to end the nearly five-year-long crisis in Syria.

The resolution calls for the Syrian peace talks on a transitional government to begin in early January. It also calls for a nationwide ceasefire in the war-torn country.

The transition process should be Syrian-led and Syrian-owned, the text says, stressing that the "Syrian people will decide the future of Syria."

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large parts of the country.

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