resident Joe Biden addressed the nation Sunday afternoon after meeting with his national security team, calling the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s “abhorrent” regime a “historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria.”
“At long last, the Assad regime has fallen,” Biden said. “This regime brutalized, tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians.”
At the same time, it’s “also a moment of risk and uncertainty,” Biden added, saying that the U.S. would “support Syria’s neighbors, including Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Israel, should any threat arise.”
He also said the U.S. is “mindful” of the security of Americans in Syria, including American freelance journalist and Marine Corps veteran Austin Tice, who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria in 2012. Biden said it will “remain committed to returning [Tice] to his family.”