Trump says Clinton policy on Syria would lead to World War Three

[MikeWB]

DORAL, Florida (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Democrat Hillary Clinton's plan for Syria would "lead to World War Three," because of the potential for conflict with military forces from nuclear-armed Russia.

In an interview focused largely on foreign policy, Trump said defeating Islamic State is a higher priority than persuading Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, playing down a long-held goal of U.S. policy.

Trump questioned how Clinton would negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin after demonizing him, and blamed President Barack Obama for a downturn in U.S. relations with the Philippines under its new president, Rodrigo Duterte.

In addition, Trump bemoaned a lack of Republican unity behind his candidacy and said he would easily win the election if the party leaders would support him.

"If we had party unity, we couldn't lose this election to Hillary Clinton," he said.

On Syria's civil war, Trump said Clinton could drag the United States into a world war with a more aggressive posture toward resolving the conflict.

Clinton has called for the establishment of a no-fly zone and "safe zones" on the ground to protect non-combatants. Some analysts fear that protecting those zones could bring the United States into direct conflict with Russian warplanes.

"What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria," said Trump as he dined on fried eggs and sausage links at his Trump National Doral golf resort. "You're going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton," he said.

"You're not fighting Syria any more, you're fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right? Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk," he said.

Trump said getting Assad to leave power was less important than defeating Islamic State.

"Assad is secondary, to me, to ISIS," he said.