Some in Trump Team Ready to Cooperate With Syria on Fighting Terrorism

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim said that as regards new US administration, its policy is less negative than the policy of the previous administration as among its representatives there are those who would like to coordinate with Syrian authorities in the fight against terrorism.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — Some of the officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump would like to cooperate with Syria on fighting against terrorism, Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim said in an interview with Lebanese Al Mayadeen TV channel Thursday.

"As regards new [US] administration, its policy is less negative than the policy of the previous [administration] as among its representatives there are those who would like to coordinate with us in the fight against terrorism," Karim said.

He added that Damascus expected more clarity on the issue from Donald Trump administration.

"It is necessary to translate Washington's desire to combat terrorism into coordination with the Syrian authorities," Karim said.

On March 11, Syrian President Bashar Assad said there was no room yet for cooperation between the United States and Syria, despite common task in fighting terrorism.

Trump has repeatedly said that he was going to review the US strategy on fight against the Islamic State jihadist group (ISIL or Daesh, outlawed in many countries, including Russia). In particular, he said that the new administration would focus on the anti-terrorism fight itself, rather than on ousting the Syrian president, who, according to the US president, was "killing" IS.