CNN)-
Donald Trump warned in an interview Tuesday that
Hillary Clinton's policies as president to address the
Syrian conflict would lead to World War III, arguing
the Democratic nominee would draw the US into
armed confrontation with Russia, Syria and Iran.
"What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not
be focusing on Syria," Trump told Reuters on
Tuesday morning at his resort in Doral, Florida.
"You're going to end up in World War III over Syria if
we listen to Hillary Clinton."
The Republican nominee, who has called for a
rapprochement with Russia in order to jointly
combat ISIS, argued that his Democratic rival's calls
for taking a more aggressive posture in Syria to
bring the conflict there to an end and combat ISIS
will only draw the US into a larger war. Trump's
remarks come as he trails Clinton in most national
and key battleground state polls just two weeks
from Election Day.
"You're not fighting Syria anymore, you're fighting
Syria, Russia and Iran, all right? Russia is a nuclear
country, but a country where the nukes work as
opposed to other countries that talk," he said.
Trump: I'd 'love' to fight Biden
Trump has not laid out a clear strategy for
combating ISIS or addressing the globally
destabilizing conflict in Syria, which has killed
hundreds of thousands and pushed millions more to
flee their homes. He has suggested the US should
allow ISIS, anti-government rebels and the Syrian
government to fight it out and more recently has
focused on joining forces with Russia -- which has
aided the Syrian regime in the bombing of civilians
and US-allied rebels -- to combat ISIS.
"Assad is secondary, to me, to ISIS," Trump told
Reuters of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
whom US officials have argued must step down.
Clinton has called for establishing a no-fly zone
over Syria to help bring the five-year civil war to an
end, a proposal top Republicans in Congress have
championed, which President Barack Obama and
others have opposed due to the risk of entering into
conflict with Russia. A US-enforced no-fly zone
would mean the US could shoot down a Russian jet
should it enter Syrian airspace.
Clinton addressed those concerns in the final
presidential debate, arguing that it would "save lives
and hasten the end of the conflict," while cautioning
that "this would not be done just on the first day."
"This would take a lot of negotiation and it would
also take making it clear to the Russians and the
Syrians that our purpose is to provide safe zones
on the ground," Clinton said during the debate
earlier this month. "I think we could strike a deal
and make it very clear to the Russians and Syrians
that this was something that we believe the best
interests of the people on the ground in Syria. It
would help us in the fight against ISIS."
Trump has additionally called for establishing safe
zones in Syria to protect civilians -- as has Clinton
-- which could also put the US in conflict with the
Syrian government or Russia should they oppose the
policy.
The Clinton campaign later Tuesday pushed back
against Trump's rhetoric.
"National security experts on both sides of the aisle
have denounced Donald Trump as dangerously ill-
prepared and temperamentally unfit to serve as
commander-in-chief," Clinton spokesman Jesse
Lehrich said. "Once again, he is parroting Putin's
talking points and playing to Americans' fears, all
while refusing to lay out any plans of his own for
defeating ISIS or alleviating humanitarian suffering in
Syria. Moreover, this incendiary attack is aimed at a
policy that his own running mate, Mike Pence,
strongly supports."
While Clinton has accused Trump of being Putin's
"puppet," Trump knocked Clinton for her criticism of
the Russian strongman, asking, "How she is going
to go back and negotiate with this man who she
has made to be so evil."
And just two days after he tied the successful
enactment of his agenda as president to the
election of Republican majorities in Congress,
Trump also returned to his more typical complaints
of a lack of Republican unity weighing down his
candidacy.
"If we had party unity, we couldn't lose this election
to Hillary Clinton," he told Reuters.
That complaint didn't put Trump in more of a
bipartisan mood, though, as the Republican
nominee also told Reuters he would not consider
putting any Democrats in his cabinet -- a departure
from recent presidents, who have sought to post at
least one member of their rival party in a top
administration post.
https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/
cnn/2016/10/25/politics/donald-trump-hillary-
clinton-world-war-iii-syria/index.html
cnn/2016/10/25/politics/donald-trump-hillary-
clinton-world-war-iii-syria/index.html
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