Washington – President Barack Obama’s handling of the Syria crisis has empowered America’s enemies, a leading U.S. senator said Thursday.
“I hope that we’ll wake up to the fact that we have ignored one of the great sad stories in modern history,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Armed Services committee, said during public remarks at the Hudson Institute think tank.
Obama “took a pass”, allowing a security vacuum to form in Syria that “has been filled by radical groups like ISIL” and emboldened Assad’s allies, namely Russia and Iran, Graham said.
More than 250,000 people have been killed during the now five-year Syrian conflict, and millions more have been forced to flee their homes.
During a recent trip to Turkey, Graham said he has held several discussions in the Senate regarding the shortcomings of the U.S. strategy.
“The Sinai and Libya would not be where they are at today without Syria,” he said. “The war in Syria has tentacles, and those tentacles are growing.”
Graham also said that every actor in the region, including the Egyptians, Saudis and Turks believe that “Syria is headed toward being a satellite state of Iran.” “And that is a non-starter,” he added.
However, he said, the world should prepare for another wave of refugees even if the U.S.-led coalition is “successful” in pushing Daesh back or replacing Assad in Syria.
“One of the takeaways is that we don’t have a safe haven inside of Syria for regime refugees to go”, he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency, April 8