Donald Trump claims Hillary Clinton 'would trigger World War III'

Trigger warning: Donald Trump
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Rashid Razaq26 October 2016

Donald Trump has claimed Hillary Clinton’s plans to deal with the Syrian crisis would “lead to World War Three” and attacked Republicans for failing to unite behind him.

The Republican US presidential candidate said his rival threatened to spark a conflict with Russia and said defeating Islamic State should be a higher priority than forcing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.

Mr Trump said: “What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria. You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton.

“You’re not fighting Syria any more, you’re fighting Syria, Russia and Iran. Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk,”

Speaking at his Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami, Florida, the billionaire property mogul said he was better suited to negotiate with Vladimir Putin than Mrs Clinton as she has repeatedly criticised the Russian president. Mrs Clinton has called for the establishment of a no-fly zone and “safe zones” on the ground to protect non-combatants. Critics say that protecting those zones could bring the US into direct conflict with Russian fighter jets.

Campaign trail: Hillary Clinton
AP

Mrs Clinton’s campaign dismissed the criticism, saying that both Republican and Democratic national security experts have denounced Trump as unfit to be commander-in-chief.

“Once again, he is parroting Putin’s talking points and playing to Americans’ fears, all while refusing to lay out any plans of his own for defeating ISIS or alleviating humanitarian suffering in Syria,” Mrs Clinton’s spokesman Jesse Lehrich said in a statement.

In an interview focused largely on foreign policy, Mr Trump said Mr Assad was stronger now than he was three years ago, blamed President Barack Obama for a downturn in US relations with the Philippines under its new president, Rodrigo Duterte and said he would easily win the election if Republican party leaders would support him.

“If we had party unity, we couldn’t lose this election to Hillary Clinton,” he said.

On the deterioration of ties with the Philippines, Mr Trump said President Obama “wants to focus on his golf game” rather than engage with world leaders.

Since assuming office, Mr Duterte has expressed open hostility toward the US, rejecting criticism of his violent anti-drug clampdown, and telling President Obama not to treat his country “like a dog with a leash.”

The interview comes with less than a fortnight till the November 8 election with Mr Trump trailing Mrs Clinton in the polls. The billionaire repeated his assertion that the “media is rigging the polls” and said his supporters were upset with Republican Party leadership.

“The people are very angry with the leadership of this party, because this is an election that we will win 100 percent if we had support from the top. I think we’re going to win it anyway.”

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