Trump’s NSA says defeating IS and removing Assad from power are twin goals

The United States and Britain have called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to re-evaluate his country’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In his first televised interview, H.R. McMaster, the National Security Adviser to President Donald Trump, pointed to dual U.S. goals of defeating the Islamic State terror group and removing Mr. Assad from power. As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was making the Trump administration’s first official trip this week to Russia, Mr. McMaster said Moscow will have to decide whether it wanted to continue backing a “murderous regime”.

Mr. Trump is weighing next steps after ordering airstrikes last week. “It’s very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime,” Mr. McMaster said on Fox News Sunday. “Now, we are not saying that we are the ones who are going to effect that change. What we are saying is, other countries have to ask themselves some hard questions. Russia should ask themselves ... Why are we supporting this murderous regime that is committing mass murder of its own population?”

“Right now, I think everyone in the world sees Russia as part of the problem,” Mr. McMaster said.

After last Tuesday’s chemical attack, Mr. Trump said his attitude toward Mr. Assad “has changed very much” and Mr. Tillerson said “steps are underway” to organise a coalition to remove him from power.

Separately, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday, ahead of a meeting of G7 Foreign Ministers in Italy, that “it's time for Vladimir Putin to face the truth about the tyrant he is propping up.” “We need to make it clear to Putin that the time to back Assad has gone... He must understand that Assad is now toxic in every sense. He is poisoning innocent people with weapons that were banned 100 years ago — and he is poisoning the reputation of Russia.”