[Niamh.]

Classy.

The scale and horror of Tuesday’s gas attack on civilians in Idlib highlighted the vacuum in the Trump administration’s foreign policymaking: the incident was met first by silence, then by criticism of Barack Obama.

Donald Trump described the attack, which killed scores of victims, including many children, as a direct “consequence” of his predecessor’s Syria policy.

“These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the last administration’s weakness and irresolution,” he said in a statement. “President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ‘red line’ against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing.”

The reflex illustrated Trump’s enduring sense of being in his predecessor’s shadow, reinforcing the impression given by his obsessive tweeting of unsubstantiated claims that Obama wiretapped him.

As with healthcare, Trump’s policy on Syria has been defined by the desire to unpick Obama’s legacy – without a clear picture of what would replace it.

In the absence of a clear vision, the initial response to on Tuesday was silence.

The Idlib attack was swiftly condemned by western capitals and congressional leaders, but the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson – who was visiting neighbouring Jordan at the time – ignored a press question about it, retaining his customary silence in the face of daily world events.

He recently described himself as “not a media press access person”.

On Tuesday morning, Trump addressed a builders’ conference, but made no mention of the attack.

It was only later in the day that the White House spokesman read out a statement from the president, in which Trump used the occasion to score a domestic political point against the Obama administration.

He pointed out that Obama had set down a “red line” in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, but argued that Obama then “did nothing” when the Assad regime carried out a mass gas attack against the town of Ghouta in August 2013.

Obama did not carry out air strikes but organised with Russia to move Syria’s declared arsenal of chemical weapons out of the country to be destroyed.

There was nothing in Trump’s statement to indicate how the US might respond differently from the Obama administration.

After the Ghouta attack in 2013, Trump had argued vociferously against US military action in Syria. On 7 September of that year, he tweeted: “President Obama, do not attack Syria. There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your ‘powder’ for another (and more important) day!”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...licy?CMP=fb_gu