Trump Says Assad Is "Truly An Evil Person," But The US Won't Go Into Syria

Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images

President Trump condemned his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad as "truly an evil person," and slammed Russia's backing of him following last week's chemical weapons attack, during an interview with Fox Business which aired Thursday morning.

"Frankly, Putin is backing a person thats truly an evil person. I think it's very bad for Russia, very bad for mankind and very bad for this world," Trump said.

"When you drop gas and barrel bombs, and have these massive barrels with dynamite and drop them right in the middle of a group of people, and you see the same kids with no arms, no legs and no face — this is an animal."

However, he said that there are no plans for the US military to enter the country, despite ordering airstrikes there on Thursday.

“We’re not going into Syria... But when I see people using horrible, horrible chemical weapons… and see these beautiful kids that are dead in their father's arms, or you see kids gasping for life… when you see that, I immediately called [Defense Secretary] General Mattis,” he said.

“If Russia didn’t go in and back this animal, you wouldn’t have a problem right now,” he added.

Trump also partly blamed his predecessor Barack Obama for the situation in the country, saying: “What I did should have been done by the Obama administration a long time before I did it. I think Syria would be a lot better off right now than it has been.”

Following another chemical attack in 2013, Trump repeatedly tweeted saying Obama should "stay out" of Syria, and that it would cause civilian casualties and make Obama and the US look "very bad."

Trump's condemnation of Syria and Russia during the Fox Business interview came the same day that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

In remarks before the meeting, Lavrov described the US' airstrikes last week as “an unlawful attack against Syria,” and said that Russia believes "it’s fundamentally important not to let these actions happen again.”

Tillerson said he was seeking to "clarify areas of common interest, even when our tactical approaches may be different... and to further clarify any areas of sharp difference, as well as why these differences exist, and what the prospect of narrowing these distances might be."

LINK: Here’s Why Russia’s Not Going To Dump Iran And Syria Anytime Soon

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