WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an Armed Services Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) called on the Obama Administration to recalibrate its strategy in countering ISIL to also ensure that Bashaar al-Assad, Syria’s brutal dictator, is removed from power. Senator King’s call for a revised strategy comes as thousands of Syrians flee into Europe to escape the country’s ongoing civil war and the brutality of the Assad regime, which is responsible for the deaths of more than 210,000 innocent Syrian civilians, according to recent reports.

“We’ve got to find a strategy that allows us to move Assad aside in some way because he’s the irritant,” Senator King said. “From a broad question of policy, Assad and ISIL are evil twins. ISIL largely came into existence in reaction to Assad. […] The longer we have left Assad there, it has created a situation – both a humanitarian crisis and a situation that has allowed al-Nusra and ISIL […] an opportunity to make hay with the local population. So a strategy that ignores Assad – for example, [a strategy] that trains troops to go into Syria to only fight ISIL but not Assad, I think we need to recognize that’s not a logical strategy. And part of good, strategic thinking is that you modify your strategy according to changed circumstances.”

In July 2013, following a trip to the Middle East in which he visited several Syrian refugee camps, Senator King penned a Washington Post op-ed with Senator Carl Levin, then-Chairmen of the Senate Armed Services Committee, calling for the United States to work with regional allies to remove Assad from power and put an end to the bloodshed.

In March 2014, Senator King, who is also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also joined a bipartisan group of Senators in calling on President Obama to develop and submit to Congress a more robust U.S. strategy for addressing the Syrian humanitarian crisis.

You can watch the video of Senator King’s remarks HERE.

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