‘We’re scared for our lives’: Some Syrians view Trump’s win as the ‘most dreadful turn of events imaginable’

The Syrian government seems pleased with US President-elect Donald Trump’s stunning victory last week.

The government last week signaled its relief that Hillary Clinton lost, saying it was “happy” she did not win because “she’s the one who considered all these terrorist, Islamist, jihadist groups as moderate rebels.”

And Syrian President Bashar Assad followed up Tuesday by saying Trump will be a “natural ally” if he keeps his promise to fight “terrorists” in Syria.

“We cannot tell anything about what he’s going to do, but if … he is going to fight the terrorists, of course we are going to be ally, natural ally in that regard with the Russian, with the Iranian, with many other countries,” Assad told Portugal’s RTP state television.

Zakaria Malahifji, head of the political office of an Aleppo-based rebel group, told Reuters last week that he fears that things for Syria’s opposition “will become difficult because of Trump’s statements and his relationship with Putin and Russia.”

“I imagine this is not good for the Syrian issue,” he added.

Kenan Rahmani, a Syrian-American political and human rights activist, put it bluntly.

“This is the most dreadful turn of events imaginable, I think,” Rahmani, whose family is from Damascus, told Business Insider.

“We’re scared for our lives,” he added. “But we’re afraid if we criticize Trump he will be more likely to let Russia bomb the opposition into oblivion.”

Read the whole story from Business Insider.

Featured image courtesy of AFP.