Claim: On Syria, "a lot of the allies signed on. At the last minute, Obama backed off.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War
text: a move sought by Russia. In his address to the nation on 10 September 2014, U.S. President Obama announced his intention to bomb ISIL targets in Syria and called on Congress to authorize a program to train and arm rebels who were fighting ISIL and the Syrian forces of Bashar al-Assad. For the first time, he authorized direct attacks against the militant group in Syria. In his address, he said the United States were going on offensive, launching "a steady, relentless effort to take out" the group "wherever they exist." Obama also announced creating of a broader coalition against ISIL.

title: Nikki Haley
text: former president Barack Obama's initial stance on Assad. On April 5, speaking to the U.N. Security Council a day after the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack, Haley said Russia, Assad, and Iran "have no interest in peace" and attacks similar to this would continue occurring should nothing be done in response. A day later, the U.S. launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles toward the Shayrat Air Base in Syria. Haley called the strike a "very measured step" and warned that the U.S. was prepared "to do more" despite wishing it would not be required. On April 12, after Russia blocked a draft

title: Presidency of Barack Obama
text: soldiers, while continuing to oppose Assad's regime. The Obama administration also cooperated with Syrian Kurds in opposing the ISIL, straining relations with Turkey, which accused the Syrian Kurds of working with the Kurdish terrorist groups inside Turkey. Russia launched its own military intervention to aid Assad's regime, creating a complicated multi-party proxy war, though the United States and Russia sometimes cooperated to fight ISIL. In November 2015, Obama announced a plan to resettle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States. Obama's "light-footprint" approach to the Syrian conflict was criticized by many as the Syrian Civil War became a

title: Barack Obama
text: programs run by the CIA and the Pentagon to train anti-Assad rebels. The Pentagon-run program was later found to have failed and was formally abandoned in October 2015. In the wake of a chemical weapons attack in Syria, formally blamed by the Obama administration on the Assad government, Obama chose not to enforce the "red line" he had pledged and, rather than authorize the promised military action against Assad, went along with the Russia-brokered deal that led to Assad giving up chemical weapons; however attacks with chlorine gas continued. In 2014, Obama authorized an air campaign aimed primarily at ISIL,

title: Samantha Power
text: and Assad make war. Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive," Power said. A Sept. 9 ceasefire deal between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov aimed at putting Syria's peace process back on track effectively collapsed on Monday when an aid convoy was bombed. Power, in her last major speech in the role, told the international community it must do everything it can to stop what she described as a Russian assault on

title: American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War
text: Commenting on Obama's address, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman opposed the U.S. intervention against ISIL in Syria "without the consent of the legitimate government" and said that "this step, in the absence of a UN Security Council decision, would be an act of aggression, a gross violation of international law". Ali Haidar, Syrian minister of national reconciliation, said that "any action of any kind without the consent of the Syrian government would be an attack on Syria". On 17 September, the U.S. House of Representatives approved Obama's plan to train and arm the Syrian rebels in their fight against ISIL. In

title: Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War
text: Ahrar ash-Sham. In autumn 2015, the US ruled out military cooperation with Russia in Syria. However, on 20 October 2015, the US and Russia signed a secret technical memorandum of understanding to avoid air incidents over Syria. On 22 November 2015, Syria′s president Bashar Assad said that within two months of its air strikes Russia had achieved more than the U.S.-led coalition in its fight against Islamic State for a year. Two days later, the US president Barack Obama, speaking after a meeting with his French counterpart François Hollande, said: "Russia right now is a coalition of two, Iran and

title: Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration
text: demanded the resignation of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, said that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government would be crossing a red line and would entail U.S. military action. After reports on 21 August 2013 about the usage of chemical weapons in Syria, the Obama administration formally blamed the incident on the Syrian government and sought Congressional approval for military action in Syria. Besides, Obama sought support from Britain and France for an attack in Syria. The Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved plans for a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missile strikes to have those called off by Obama

title: United States involvement in regime change
text: aside" and imposed an oil embargo against the Syrian government to bring it to its knees. Starting in 2013, the U.S. also provided training, weapons and cash to Syrian vetted "moderate" rebels, and in 2014, the Supreme Military Council. In March 2017 Ambassador Nikki Haley told a group of reporters that the US's priority in Syria was no longer on "getting Assad out." Earlier that day at a news conference in Ankara, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also said that the "longer term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people." While the US Defense Department's program

title: Syria–United States relations
text: all". Turkey unveiled a new proposal for safe zones to Sunni Arab states meeting February 13 in Bahrain. On 29 March 2017, during the Presidency of Donald Trump the United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed that the longer term status of president Bashar al-Assad is to be "decided by the Syrian people". This appears as a policy shift, since under president Barack Obama’s administration, the US made the departure of Assad a key policy aim. On March 30, 2017, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley reaffirmed that the priority of the United States policy concerning

title: Vienna peace talks for Syria
text: Nations. The Co-Chairs of the ISSG are Russia and the U.S. Western media claimed that the Russian air strikes that had begun in Syria on 30 September 2015 had tipped the balance of power on the Syrian battlefield between government and opposition in president Assad's favor, thus upending the strategy of the U.S., oppositional groups backed by the U.S. and European allies to drive Assad out of power. On 23 October 2015, foreign ministers John Kerry of the U.S., Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Adel al-Jubeir of Saudi Arabia and Feridun Sinirlioğlu of Turkey met in Vienna, preparing new international talks

title: International reactions to the Syrian Civil War
text: 3 November, Secretary of State John Kerry said in Cairo that a handover of power by Syrian President Assad "can give the people of Syria the opportunity to choose their future". In January Obama said that the United States must work with those who have been financing the opposition to make sure no extremist groups emerge from Syria the same way the Taliban came out of Afghanistan. On 2 October American Vice President Joe Biden said that "[The Turks ... the Saudis, the Emiratis] poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would

title: Stephen Kinzer
text: piece, he wrote in 2016 that Aleppo had been liberated from the violent militants who had ruled it for three years, but were liberated by Assads forces. However, the American public was told "convoluted nonsense" about the war. He further noted: "At the recent debate in Milwaukee, Hillary Clinton claimed that United Nations peace efforts in Syria were based on "an agreement I negotiated in June of 2012 in Geneva." The precise opposite is true. In 2012 Secretary of State Clinton joined Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel in a successful effort to kill Kofi Annan's UN peace plan because it

title: Foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration
text: the interview, Trump stated: "Iran and Russia are protecting Syria and it's sort of amazing that we're in there fighting ISIS in Syria so we're helping the head of Syria <nowiki>[</nowiki>Bashar al-Assad<nowiki>]</nowiki> who is not supposed to be our friend although he looks a lot better than some of our so-called friends." Instead of fighting ISIL in Syria, Trump suggested "maybe Syria should be a free zone for ISIS, let them fight and then you pick up the remnants." In a Republican primary debate in November 2015, Trump said he "got to know <nowiki>[</nowiki>Vladimir Putin<nowiki>]</nowiki> very well because we were

title: Foreign policy of Donald Trump (2015-2016)
text: protecting Syria and it's sort of amazing that we're in there fighting ISIS in Syria so we're helping the head of Syria <nowiki>[</nowiki>Bashar al-Assad<nowiki>]</nowiki> who is not supposed to be our friend although he looks a lot better than some of our so-called friends." Instead of fighting ISIL in Syria, Trump suggested "maybe Syria should be a free zone for ISIS, let them fight and then you pick up the remnants." In a Republican primary debate in November 2015, Trump said he "got to know <nowiki>[</nowiki>Vladimir Putin<nowiki>]</nowiki> very well because we were both on '60 Minutes', we were stable mates,

title: Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration
text: around Damascus, Syria were struck by rockets containing the chemical agent sarin. The attack was the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran–Iraq War. A U.S.-led military attack to punish Syria for using chemical weapons was anticipated by the end of August 2013 in which American forces and their allies launched more than 100 missiles into Syria. The U.S. Navy brought four destroyers into position in the eastern Mediterranean to reach targets inside Syria. The USS Nimitz carrier group was rerouted to Syria in early September 2013. Russia and Great Britain among other nations began evacuating their citizens in

title: Munich Security Conference
text: Senator also expressed skepticism towards the Syria agreement, which he said rewarded aggression and was just another sign of Western weakness. McCain also stated that this agreement was insufficient to end the refugee crisis, which Russia would be using as a weapon against the Western community. The Secretary General of the -Gulf Cooperation Council, Al Zayani, supported the Syria agreement. Norbert Röttgen, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, said that Russia had won the upper hand in the Middle East through its violent actions in Syria. He also spoke out against further concessions of the West in

title: Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration
text: the region are being transformed and this happened under Obama, whether by design or by failure." In 2017, as Russia on the back of its successful military campaign in Syria forged closer ties with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, analysts and politicians in the Middle East concurred that Russia’s clout in the region had grown “because Obama allowed it to’’ by failing to intervene robustly in Syria. The Obama "Red Line" remark was intended as an ultimatum to the Syrian president and the Syrian army to cease the use of chemical weapons. It appeared in a Presidential statement on 20 August

title: Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War
text: Obama, despite pressure from some political groups, refrained from outright calls for Bashar Assad′s ouster, a move then opposed by key regional US allies such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. First, limited sanctions against the Assad government were imposed by the US in April 2011, followed by Obama′s executive order as of 18 May 2011 targeting Bashar Assad specifically and six other senior officials. In July 2011, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said president Assad had “lost legitimacy.” On 18 August 2011, Barack Obama issued a written statement echoed by the leaders of the UK, France, and Germany, that

title: Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration
text: anticipation of the bombardment. During the G20 summit on 6 September, Vladimir Putin and Obama discussed the idea of putting Syria's chemical weapons under international control. On 9 September 2013, Kerry stated in response to a question from a journalist that the air strikes could be averted if Syria turned over "every single bit" of its chemical weapons stockpiles within a week, but Syria "isn't about to do it and it can't be done." State Department officials stressed that Kerry's statement and its one-week deadline were rhetorical in light of the unlikelihood of Syria turning over its chemical weapons. Hours