Transcript of US believes Assad regime in Syria may fall in days

Begin with breaking news tonight out of Syria where rebels may be on the verge of toppling president Bashar al Assad's regime. The rebels keep pushing deeper south. They say they're now at the gates of Damascus. Of course, that's Syria's capital. And at this moment, conflicting reports about where president Assad actually is.

Conflicting reports about where president Assad actually is. For more on all of this, CNN's Nick Robertson is joining us now live from London. Nick, what is the latest? Yeah. Jessica, sources I'm talking to are saying that, rebels

have essentially been looking for Assad in the capital, and he is not in the places, that they would have expected him to be. This was not the sort of main bulk of their forces that we now see poised at the northern outskirts of Damascus, and we see rebel forces who've come from the south as well in some of the sort of southern suburbs. Damascus is a really, really large city. You know, you can travel, an hour to get to the, really, the the far outside of it if the traffic is heavy. What we are seeing right now is the army deserting their post, the police deserting their post right around the capital, and the rebels converging on it, and these rebel elements that have already been inside essentially on reconnaissance efforts, inside the capital are not seeing Assad, where they would expect him to see him or not seeing indications of him.

They don't know where he is. They say that they're searching for him. They don't know if he's in Damascus still, if he has somewhere else in the country, or even if he has left the country. They just don't have concrete information about it. But for sure, he's not in the places they would expect him to be, which really shows the signs here that Assad appears to recognize that his grip on power is is loosening, and potentially really here, you know, may have may have less than days in reality to have a grip on the country.

If he if the if Damascus wakes up tomorrow morning, finds rebels move from the outside into the outside into the center of the city, he effectively has lost control over the capital. And it'll we don't know we don't know what he may keep under his control at this time.

It is truly incredible. And just to watch how quickly this has all played out. Nick, as president Trump is overseas tonight, he's also making his position known on what he believes the US involvement in Syria should be. What is he saying?

Yeah. It's pretty clear. Look. He's saying this is not the United States fight. United States should stay out of it.

That this is something just stand back and let them finish up there. US does have forces inside the very northwest of Syria. They are backing and supporting and backed by a large, mostly Kurdish rebel faction there, the Syrian Democratic Forces. This is an important component of the US's the United States overseas efforts to contain and constrict and and, defeat ISIS. And 1 of the important things, if you will, about that rebel group in the northwest of Syria that the United States supports is the large jails where there are 100, if not 1000, of former ISIS fighters and their families that are being kept in those prisons, essentially by these Kurdish groups that are supported by the United States.

So president Trump making very clear, he sees, no role for the United States forces inside Syria at the moment. He's not talking here, it appears, diplomatically or politically. This is really about forces. And at the moment, they are a long way from the action in the capital, but he's making it very clear. They should have absolutely no part going forward in what's happening there.

Alright. Nick Robertson with the very latest out of London. Thank you so much for that. And joining us now is the former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. He was also the national security adviser during Trump's first term.

Thanks so much for being here with us. I just wanna get your reaction first to this stunning advance by rebel forces in Syria tonight.

Well, it certainly looks like, the combination of pressure from the north, but also from the south out of Deirah province where, over 12, 13 years ago, during the Arab spring, the the opposition to Assad really first manifested itself. Look. In 2011, everybody said Assad was done for, and obviously he wasn't. It may well be this time his luck has run out. It certainly looks, very grave.

The real question, I think, is whether a combination of Russian and Iranian assistance can prop him up, or or whether we're coming face to face with, some very significant questions about, the future of Syria and, and indeed Iraq, whether whether they can, maintain their territorial integrity, whether they're viable as, as states going forward, or just what the lay of the land will look like.

Has this surprised you how quickly this day of advanced the rebel forces and successfully?

Well, I think, there's a lot we don't know. We don't know, for example, how much Turkey was involved in supplying logistics and intelligence and other aid to these rebels. Let's not forget another complication here are the Neo Ottomanist, imperial ambitions of president Erdogan of Turkey. But but I think 1 thing we're seeing is the is the, near collapse of, of Russian ability to do anything militarily drawn, away from Syria by the, war in Ukraine. What Russia's interest in Syria, comes down to is its naval station at Tartus and its airbase north of, north of Tartus in Lottekaia province.

If if the Russians can make a deal with a new Syrian regime and keep those bases, I don't think they care that much about Assad. For Iran, it's very different. If Assad and his Alawite regime are replaced by Sunni Islamicist, Iran is in deep trouble in its ability to support whatever's left of Hezbollah, whatever the Israelis haven't destroyed. And and this whole opportunity for the rebels in Syria, we owe to Israel, and we owe to Israel's destruction, ongoing destruction of, Hamas, in the Gaza Strip and its ongoing dismemberment of Hezbollah in, Lebanon. The the Middle East is definitely changing to Iran's detriment.

But let's also be clear, The these, Syrian rebels, by and large, are Islamicists themselves. Many are Al Qaeda, ISIS, fighters, and, a a terrorist regime in Damascus, is, in in lieu of the Assad regime is like potentially jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. The US shouldn't get involved militarily, but it is dead wrong to say we don't have real interest in the outcome of this fight.

Yeah. So I wanna ask you about that because as Nick was reporting, president-elect Trump has been very clear he wants the US to stay out of Syria writing, quote, this is not our fight. Let it play out. It's very different from what senator Lindsey Graham, for example, posted yesterday. He said that it's, quote, imperative to reinforce American troops there.

Who do you think is right?

Well, I think, we cannot leave American troops at risk. That's for sure. They're they're largely concentrated, not not in the northwest part where the rebels have come from, but in the northeast, and have been a stabilizing force there and and a real deterrent to Iran, actively supporting Assad, more widely within, Syria and at the absolutely critical Athan enclave, at the confluence of the Iraqi, Jordanian, and Syrian borders. You know, we've gotta worry about, Erdogan trying to extend Turkish control over much of Northern Syria. That that would not be good for stability in the region.

We we don't know whether Erdogan has spoken to Trump about this or not. But but it's possible Syria will simply fragment, that Assad will retreat to the Alawite Highlands North of, of Lebanon, and that could become a a a mini state. The the the rebels could take Damascus, the Syrian Defense Forces, the the Kurdish forces, could could be left in charge of Northwest Syria. This could contribute to the fragmentation of of Iraq right next door. Things are really very unstable, and and therefore, American forces at at Tanf in Northeast Syria, in Iraq, needed to be provided with whatever protection is necessary given the the breakdown of order, whatever order, minimal order there was in Syria to begin with.

Yeah. And I do wanna ask you a little more about that because I'm I'm curious. Obviously, this is still happening in real time. It's playing out before our very eyes. But how does the rebel success begin to shift the dynamics in that region with Kurdish and Turkish backed forces in the north and Islamic State Fighters kind of throughout the country?

Well, it depends on how much territory they take, but, certainly, Israel was never happy with Assad, a pro Iran, regime, to its north, along the Golan Heights and and, being used by Iran for, 20 years, if not more, as a transit route to supply Hezbollah with weapons and ammunition and and equipment to supply Hezbollah with weapons and ammunition and and equipment to threaten Israel. But a a, Sunni, extremist regime in Damascus isn't any better for Israel in many respects, and it could lead to a resurgence of of ISIS, in Syria and and in Western Iraq and pose a terrorist threat not just to Israel, but to to the Gulf Arab, states, as well. This is something that's gonna require very careful watching, and, I don't I don't think there are many contingency plans available because I think the success of the rebels has caught pretty much everybody surprise by surprise, including in Washington.