(Karachi) Former US president Donald Trump wanted to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad just weeks after assuming office in 2017, a report published in Arab News revealed.

As per the report, KT McFarland, who served as a deputy national security adviser for four months in Trump administration, said that Trump insisted that he would “take him out” after seeing pictures of a Syrian regime sarin gas attack on civilians.

In April 2017, the Assad regime allegedly launched a sarin gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in western Syria, killing 90 people.

Macfarland said he told Trump: “You can’t do that. He said ‘why?’ And I said ‘well, that’s an act of war’.” He said: “I knew what he (Trump) wanted to do was somehow punish Assad and not let him get away with this.”

Syria had denied involvement, claiming it no longer possessed chemical weapons following a 2013 deal under which it pledged to surrender its chemical arsenal. However, Trump would go on to respond by launching his administration’s only direct attack on Syria, firing 59 cruise missiles at Shayrat airbase in western Syria — said to have been the location from where the chemical attack was launched.