Good News: Biden ‘Closely Monitoring’ Events in Syria

Whew.

Has America ever been this irrelevant on the world stage?

In response to the fall of Syria, the White House National Security Spokesman announced that, “President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners.”

Whew.

Secretary of State Blinken held a call with the Turkish regime which is responsible for the takeover of Syria.

Here’s the press readout.

“Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss developments in Syria. Secretary Blinken emphasized the importance of protecting civilians, including members of minority groups, across Syria. The Secretary discussed the need for a political solution to the conflict, consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254.”

The last press briefing on Syria is mostly hapless.

QUESTION: Can I go to Syria?

MR PATEL: Sure, yeah. Please.

QUESTION: The situation obviously is changing quite rapidly.

MR PATEL: Yeah.

QUESTION: The city of Hama has fallen to the Islamist rebels. I know you gave your explanation the other day about what you want to see, about a political process, et cetera. I mean, but what’s the level of concern right now? Is there concern that this is getting out of hand, that the humanitarian consequences and the political consequences could be more – could be further reaching?

MR PATEL: So that is certainly – the humanitarian impact is certainly one that is front of mind as we see these events unfold. And we, with our partners, are urging allies to protect its civilians, including members of minority groups. And again, I think – not to sound like a broken record of what I said the other day, but I don’t have specific assessments on individual battlefield updates, Shaun. But all of those together just continue to reflect, in our point of view, that the time is now to return to a serious UN-facilitated political process. And the constant refusal to engage in this process, candidly, has led to – directly to some of the events that we’re witnessing. And some of these escalatory events over the past 72 hours demonstrate that the only way to truly end this conflict once and for all is through inclusive political settlement consistent with UNSCR 2254.

This sort of impotent blather followed by calls to abide by meaningless UN Resolution 5353X is what we used to expect from European countries. Now it’s what comes out of the United States.