A Quote by Rashid Khalidi

Russia and Iran are not going to allow the Assad regime to fall.

Rashid Khalidi

Quote Topics

Allow Assad Fall Going Iran Regime Russia

Quote Author

Rashid Khalidi
American - Historian
Born: 1948

I see a bit of a contradiction between the fight against the Islamic State and the desire to remove the Assad regime. And even if you work with Russia, I'm just not sold that working with Russia is an effective way to hasten the end of the Assad regime or to enact any type of punitive measures.

Judy Woodruff

I think the Bashar Assad regime is on a roll. I think it's got the backing of Russia and Iran and Hezbollah. And it's hard to see who is going to stand in their way in this steady fight against the insurgents.

Joshua Landis

It's a welcome development that the president is paying attention to the war crimes that are being committed by the Assad regime and by their supporters in Iran and in Russia.

Kori Schake

A lot of the issue that is happening in Syria is Assad is still there. And after years now, the administration, of saying Assad has to go, the pressure is not being applied to Russia, to Iran - the folks that are propping up Assad - and Assad himself to be able to actually be removed there and to transition to another leader.

James Lankford

I'm no apologist for Russia or the Assad regime, but actually, this has been staring us in the face for a number of years now, and I think it's time to turn a page and accept reality. Our strategy - if that is the right word - failed miserably, and Russia's with Iran has been successful.

Jeremy Hunt

I don't understand this thing about [Bashar] Assad. He has to go. Assad is aligned with Iran and Russia. The one thing we want to prevent is we want to prevent Iran being able to extend a Shia crescent all across the Middle East. Assad has got to go.

John Kasich

I think most of the Washington foreign policy establishment exists in a fantasy world when it comes to Syria. They fundamentally don't understand that Russia and Iran, from the beginning, had much more at stake in Syria than the United States did. Russia and Iran were going to do everything possible in order to keep Bashar al-Assad in power.

Chris Murphy

What the United States needs to do at this point is reaffirm our commitment that Assad must go and that Iran and Russia cannot be granted a sphere of influence in Syria, and that we will not sit down at the negotiating table to help broker Assad's victory in this fight.

Tom Cotton

Russia and Iran back Assad, but are they fighting Daesh? The answer is 'no.'

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

I don't like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS. Russia is killing ISIS. And Iran is killing ISIS. And those three have now lined up because of our weak foreign policy.

Donald Trump

When Iran continues to get away with bad behavior, what do our allies who are Iran's enemies think about us? It is why we cannot stand by while Russia allies itself with Iran. You can't outsource American leadership to Russia. Russia isn't on our side. They're on their side and Iran's side.

Carly Fiorina

Our intervention to destabilize the Assad regime has really made the chaos worse in Syria. And if you were to get rid of Assad today, I would actually worry about the 2 million Christians that are protected by Assad.

Rand Paul

It would be naive of me to suggest that with Russia committed militarily, as it is, to supporting what in many cases are barbarous tactics by the Assad regime to crush the opposition.

Barack Obama

If Russia is there [in Syria] alone fighting them [ISIL], guess what? Russia becomes the target and Russia starts seeing - who knows - MANPADs will find their way in there, airplanes will fall out of the sky. They will become vilified. They'll become the new magnet, together with Assad, for the jihadis.