Jill Stein denies having supported Syria’s Assad

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein clarified her position on Syria as “anti-interventionist” in a discussion for an upcoming episode of Middle East Eye’s podcast Unapologetic. 

“We have never taken a position in support of Bashar al-Assad. We are against intervention because intervention has all sorts of unintended consequences, which are very long-lasting and tend to make things worse,” the 74-year-old former physician said.

“[Assad is] a dictator with a long record of human rights abuses. And we very strongly support the sovereignty, the autonomy and the human rights of the Syrian people and their right to determine their future,” she added.

In 2015, ahead of her second presidential run, Stein’s campaign website urged then-president Barack Obama to stay out of Syria as the Islamic State (IS) militant group gained ground.

“The US should be working with Syria, Russia, and Iran to restore all of Syria to control by the government rather than jihadi rebels,” the statement said. 

The suggestion that all of Syria should return to Assad’s control after tens of thousands had been displaced, tortured, or killed caused outrage among many Syrian-Americans and their allies. 

That statement was later removed from the website.

“There was one sentence that was very confusing that had not been approved by our campaign, which was posted on our website, and when that was called to our attention, we took it down,” Stein said on Unapologetic. 

Social media controversy

Just weeks before the 2016 election, Stein tweeted a map of Syria with two superimposed gas pipeline paths - a Russia-backed route from Iran, and a US-backed route from Turkey. 

“This explains so much,” she wrote alongside the map, suggesting that the war in Syria - ignited by a people’s uprising in 2011 - was a foreign-backed project to exploit the country’s resources. 

Assad has long tried to discredit protest movements against his rule by claiming they are financed and encouraged by foreign actors. 

This is Stein’s third time running for president. Polling conducted late last month among Muslim-American voters showed her leading in three battleground states: Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In 2016, she received a little over one percent of the overall vote - her highest share yet. 

Her use of the term “genocide” in Gaza and her pledge to implement an arms embargo on Israel have given many Muslim and Arab Americans a third-party option in the November ballot.

Both the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and the Republican candidate Donald Trump have said they will firmly stand behind Israel.