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Conflict in Syria

US senator urges Trump to realize Islamic State more dangerous than Assad

Senator Rand Paul also believes that the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria does not affect US national interests

NEW YORK, April 9. /TASS/. The Trump administration needs to decide whom it considers more dangerous - extremists and terrorists from the Islamic State (IS, terror group, outlawed in Russia) or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Senator Rand Paul (a Republican from Kentucky) said in an interview with the CNN on Saturday.

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"You have to ask yourself: who takes over next? Are they better than the current occupant? So are the radical Islamic rebels - the radical Islamic rebels in Syria - better than Assad? There are also two million Christians in Syria, being protected by Assad, and they fear the Islamic rebels taking over," the senator noted.

He added that "there can be an endless supply of enemies" in Syria.

Paul also emphasized that the complex situation in Syria cannot be equated to the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The senator recalled that "atrocities throughout the world" occurred every day, but that does not mean that the US should succumb to emotion and use military force every time.

"We have to decide when we are going to intervene as a country, when we are going to put our young men and women, put their lives on the line. And we don’t, frankly, do it for every atrocity in the world," he stated.

The senator also believes that the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria does not affect US national interests. "As horrific as those attacks were, and as heart-rending as the pictures and the atrocity and the children dying are, I don't believe that there was a national security interest of the United States," he insisted.

The US military fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a military airfield in Syria’s Homs province overnight to Friday on orders issued by US President Donald Trump. The strike came in response to what Washington claims was Damascus’ use of chemical weapons in the Idlib province. The Pentagon said the alleged chemical attack was launched from this airfield.

However, according the Russian Defense Ministry, on April 4, the Syrian air force delivered an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun to destroy militant facilities used to produce chemical bombs. These bombs were sent to Iraq and were also used in Aleppo.

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