Top American lawmakers backed President Donald Trump's cruise missile strikes on Syria against the Assad regime for using chemical weapons against innocent civilians and have called for a Syrian strategy that secures the interests of the US and its allies.
"What is needed now is a strategy that secures US and allied interests in Syria - ending the conflict, dealing a sustainable defeat to ISIL and Al-Qaeda, and beginning to repatriate Syrian refugees to their homes," Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham said in a joint statement.
Trump's decision to strike back against Assad for using chemical weapons against innocent civilians was a strong statement much appreciated by the civilized world, they said, noting that the US strategy cannot presume to separate the fight against ISIL from the Syrian people's fight against the Assad regime.
"They are inextricably connected. Assad is a puppet of Iran, and as long as he continues to slaughter his own people, it will be impossible to destroy the radical terrorist groups that occupy Syria and the region, and the war will never end. Nor will the threat posed by these groups to our nation," McCain and Graham said.
"As part of a broader strategy, we urge the President to take greater military action to achieve our objectives, including grounding the Syrian air force and establishing safe havens inside Syria to protect Syrians," the Senators said.
"There will never be a diplomatic solution as long as Assad dominates the battlefield," they said.
In an interview to a local radio station, Democratic Senator from Delaware Chris Coons also called for a Syrian strategy.
"What I think we need next out of the administration and Congress is for the administration to work with us, to define a strategy for our counter-ISIS campaign in Iraq and Syria, for our confrontation with North Korea, and for our confrontation with Assad, and get approval from Congress," Coons said.
Last week, the US launched a massive military strike on a Syrian air base in retaliation for a "barbaric" chemical attack on civilians, that killed 58 people, as President Donald Trump appealed to all "civilised nations" to join America to end the "bloodshed" in the war-torn country.
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