US State Dept takes issue with Obama’s Syria policy

Fifty-one mostly mid-level department officials who work on America’s Syria policy signed on a memo expressing frustration with the White House policy and calling for the top US priority to be the removal of the Assad regime. Sources close President Barack Obama indicated Saturday that no policy change was envisaged. DEBKAfile’s Washington sources add that the memo represented almost unprecedented criticism of the president and was prompted by concern that he was taking his association with Vladimir Putin in Syria too far against the advice of his American advisers.