In an interview with the BBC earlier today, Barack Obama ruled out the possibility of the United States deploying foot soldiers to Syria.
The US President added that military efforts alone could not solve the country’s problems.
“It would be a mistake for the United States to send in ground troops and overthrow the Assad regime [i.e Syrian Government]” he told the BBC.
Regrettably, Obama noted that he did not believe the Islamic State [ISIS] would be defeated in his last nine months of office.
He also said the Syrian war represented “a heart-breaking situation of enormous complexity”.
“I don’t think there are any simple solutions,” the US President said about the conflict.
“In order for us to solve the long-term problems in Syria, a military solution alone – and certainly us deploying ground troops – is not going to bring that about.”
But he said the international community would have to continue to apply pressure to all parties, including Russia, Iran and moderate opposition groups “to sit down at the table and try to broker a transition”.
“I do think that we can slowly shrink the environment in which ISIS operates and eventually take on strongholds like Mosul and Raqqa that are the beating heart of their movement,” Obama added.
