President becomes emotional speaking of personal burden he feels when children are killed and accuses the Syrian regime of having ‘blood on their hands’

Barack Obama said on Friday the Syrian regime and its allies had “blood on their hands” as he reflected on eight years in office with a humbling admission about the limits of presidential power.

At his longest and probably last press conference at the White House before making way for Donald Trump, Obama became emotional as he spoke of feeling responsible when children in Syria are killed by snipers or atrocities are committed around the world.

The president who began his tenure winning the Nobel peace prize ended it in a throwback to the cold war, condemning President Vladimir Putin not only over Russia’s aggression in Aleppo but also regarding cyber-attacks on the US presidential election. Obama had personally told Putin to “cut it out”, he said.

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The press briefing room at the White House was so crowded for Obama’s final end-of-year summation that one journalist fainted and required medical attention. Although the first African American president reeled off a list of achievements, from reducing unemployment to expanding healthcare to rapprochement with Cuba, as proof that the US is significantly better off than when he succeeded George W Bush in 2009, it has been increasingly evident Syria will cast a shadow on his legacy.

“The world as we speak is united in horror at the savage assaults by the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies on the city of Aleppo,” he said. “We have seen a deliberate strategy of surrounding, besieging and starving innocent civilians. We’ve seen relentless targeting of humanitarian workers and medical personnel, [neighborhoods] reduced to rubble and dust. There are continuing reports of civilians being executed. These are all horrific violations of international law.”

He added forcefully: “Responsibility for this brutality lies in one place alone, with the Assad regime and its allies, Russia and Iran, and this blood and these atrocities are on their hands.”

The near six-year civil war in Syria has been an intractable problem for Obama, who was widely criticised for drawing a “red line” over the use of chemical weapons then failing to enforce it. The president called for an impartial international observer force in Aleppo, full access for humanitarian aid and a broad ceasefire.

He was asked if he felt any personal moral responsibility at the end of his presidency for the carnage of Aleppo. “I always feel responsible,” the president replied. “I felt responsible when kids were being shot by snipers. I felt responsible when millions of people had been displaced. I feel responsible for murder and slaughter that’s taken place in South Sudan that’s not being reported on, partly because there’s not as much social media being generated from there.

“There are places around the world where horrible things are happening and because of my office, because I’m president of the United States, I feel responsible. I ask myself every single day, is there something I could do that would save lives and make a difference and spare some child who doesn’t deserve to suffer? So that’s a starting point. There’s not a moment during the course of this presidency where I haven’t felt some responsibility.”

But weeks’ worth of meetings with military officials, aid agencies, diplomats and outside critics failed to find a solution, he confessed. There was no appetite for sending in large numbers of US troops without an international law mandate or support from Congress when there will still boots on the ground in Iraq after a decade of war that cost trillions of dollars. There would also be confrontation with “military superpower” in Russia and Iran.

There’s not a moment during the course of this presidency where I haven’t felt some responsibility. Barack Obama

“And in that circumstance, unless we were all in and willing to take over Syria, we were going to have problems. And everything else was tempting because we wanted to do something and it sounded like the right thing to do but it was going to be impossible to do this on the cheap. And in that circumstance, I have to make decision as president of the United States as to what is best. I’m sorry.”

Contrary to the claims of Russia and the Bashar al-Assad regime, he said, tens of thousands of people were still trapped in Aleppo and prepared to leave under any conditions. The US would continue to put pressure to get them out.



Trump, who will be inaugurated on 20 January, has called for the creation of “safe zones” in Syria. Asked for his view, Obama said: “I will help President-elect Trump with any advice, counsel, information that we can provide so that he, once he’s sworn in, can make a decision.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barack Obama takes questions at the year-end press conference at the White House in Washington. Photograph: Zach Gibson/AFP/Getty Images

Putin also dominated Obama’s remarks about the US presidential election following reports that US intelligence agencies believe he personally directed the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairperson, John Podesta.

He said he spoke with Putin in September and told him to “cut it out”. It seemed to work, he added, but by then Podesta’s emails were already in the possession of WikiLeaks. He criticised Republicans for warming to Putin, suggesting that they were helping Russia undermine American democracy.

Although Russia, he said, was a weaker country that did not innovate, he noted frankly: “Mr Putin can weaken us just like he’s trying to weaken Europe if we start buying into notions that it’s OK to intimidate the press, or lock up dissidents, or discriminate against people because of their faith or what they look like.

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“What I worry about – more than anything – is the degree to which because of the fierceness, because of the partisan battle, you start to see certain folks in the Republican party and Republican voters suddenly finding a government and individuals who stand contrary to everything that we stand for as being OK, because that’s how much we dislike Democrats.”

Referring to a president revered by Republicans for winning the cold war, he added: “Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave.”

And in one of several digs at the media, he remarked: “If fake news being released by some foreign government is almost identical to reports that are being issued through partisan news venues, then it’s not surprising that that foreign propaganda will have a greater effect, because it doesn’t seem so far-fetched.”

But throughout the press conference, Obama studiously avoided direct criticisms of Trump, describing him as “still in transition mode”. He said their telephone conversations were “cordial” and not “defensive in any way”.

He said he advised Trump to “think it through” before making any changes to the “one-China” policy. Trump has said he would not feel bound by the decades-old policy in which the US recognises Taiwan as part of China.

