Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned the
US against assassinating President Ahmed al-Sharaa before the new
Syrian leader met with President Donald Trump, a US senator said on Thursday.
The remarkable statement by a US senator reveals the deep hostility toward Sharaa in some circles of the Trump administration. It reaffirms Trump's own statements that he has been lobbied directly by foreign leaders to give Sharaa a chance, while his own advisors are sceptical.
“I have been concerned by some rumours that I have heard in…some foreign policy circles of the administration that one option that’s been suggested is assassinating the new leader of the Syrian government, Ahmed al-Sharaa,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said in a Senate hearing on Thursday.
According to Shaheen,
Jordan’s King Abdullah II heard about the alleged discussions to assassinate Sharaa and warned against it.
“One of the things that was pointed out to us by King Abdullah was that a change in leadership of that kind would create an all-out civil war in Syria. That would not be good to take advantage of the opportunity we have to move that country forward,” Shaheen said.