The White House told Newsmax on Monday it would not rule out striking at the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria by teaming up with France and the United Kingdom — in effect, the same three-nation coalition envisioned by President Obama to handle airstrikes against Syria in 2013.
“Certainly, we have great relationship with both countries and are continuing conversations with both the U.K. as well as France,” press secretary Sarah Sanders told me.
As for whether the U.S. hopes to forge a three-nation coalition to launch airstrikes against Syria, the president’s top spokeswoman said the U.S. “hopes to work with all of our allies and partners in a response.”
Sanders’ comments came less than 24 hours after the president spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron. A statement was subsequently released in both condemned the Assad government’s use of chemical weapons.
In August of 2013, following the first reports that chemical weapons were being deployed by Damascus, then-President Barack Obama had the support of then-French President Francois Hollande and then-British Prime Minister David Cameron for all three of their countries participating in joint airstrikes against the Assad regime.
But this plan collapsed on Aug. 29, when the British House of Commons voted 285 to 272 against participation — a move that The Guardian called “disastrous for Obama.”
Although France’s Hollande remained resolute in his support of an airstrike, support for such a move in the U.S. Congress faded and Obama eventually deferred to Russian President Vladimir Putin to step up and convince Assad to destroy his chemical weapons.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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