Haas: Obama Has Made Middle East ‘Much Worse,’ Damaged American Reliability

Richard Haas: Obama Has Made Middle East ‘Much Worse,’ Damaged American Reliability (Washington Free Beacon)

Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass expressed his concerns about the Obama administration’s handling of U.S. foreign policy while on Morning Joe Monday.

When asked for his opinion on how the President has guided the U.S. in these times of turmoil, Haass conceded that President Obama inherited a difficult situation but was blunt in his take on President Obama’s foreign policy decisions: “The short answer is not terribly well. In the Middle East he has inherited a difficult situation but made it much worse.”

“More than anything the most consequential set of actions was of Syria,” he said, “Raising fundamental questions in the region and beyond about American reliability. Letting a bad situation get worse. His best idea of his presidency was to pivot to Asia to put more emphasis there but we haven’t done it. We decreased our diplomacy.”