"When I look at what’s going on in Syria, it’s so sad… And we’re going to help people… We’ll build and help build safe zones in Syria, so people will have a chance," Trump told his supporters in a post-election rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, The New York Times newspaper reported on Thursday.
Trump added that Persian Gulf states would pay for the initiative as they have sufficient funds.
Pennsylvania was one of the key battleground states in November's election, where Trump won by a thin margin. The victory was confirmed after a recount earlier in December. During his election campaign, the president-elect spoke several times of creating safe areas for Syrian refugees in Syria. When arguing for the proposal, Trump had stated this would stem the tide of Syrian refugees going abroad and lower the burden on neighboring countries and Europe.
Trump's speech comes as the Syrian government nears the watershed moment of fully liberating eastern Aleppo from militants. The withdrawal of fighters and their family members continued on Friday under Russian oversight, Sputnik reported.