by AP and Israel Hayom Staff
"The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end, and the only issue is how that should be brought about."
U.S. Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson doubled down Thursday on Washington’s call for
Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, looking past recent
battlefield gains by Assad's Russian-backed forces to insist that "the
reign of the Assad family is coming to an end."
Tillerson made the comments after what he
called a "fruitful" meeting with U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura,
who later announced plans to resume U.N.-mediated peace Syrian talks on
Nov. 28. It will be the eighth such round under his mediation in Geneva
since early 2016.
They come despite the fact that Assad’s
forces have just in the past year recaptured Syria’s second-largest city
and reached the key eastern city of Deir ez-Zour, long under siege from
Islamic State fighters.
The top U.S. diplomat used the occasion to
reiterate Washington’s longstanding, hardline position against Assad,
which has been overshadowed of late by the Trump administration’s focus
more on defeating the Islamic State group than on ousting the Syrian
leader.
Officials in Damascus could not immediately be reached for comment.
Tillerson also endeavored to play down Iran’s role in supporting Assad.
Syria’s civil war has left at least 400,000
people dead and driven more than 11 million people from their homes,
and the United States has been calling for Assad to go nearly from the
start of the uprising against him more than six an a half years ago.
But this time, facts on the ground are playing more in his favor than at any time in years.
Reuters
"The United States wants a whole and
unified Syria with no role for Bashar Assad in the government,"
Tillerson told reporters after the meeting at the U.S. mission in
Geneva. "The reign of the Assad family is coming to an end, and the only
issue is how that should be brought about."
"We do not believe there is a future for the Assad regime, the Assad family," he said.
Tillerson made similar statements in April –
before even greater territorial gains by Assad's forces, prompting the
Syrian leader to retort then that the diplomat had been "hallucinating."
De Mistura announced the Nov. 28 date for
the resumption of the intra-Syrian talks in an address by video
conference to the U.N. Security Council following the Tillerson meeting.
He said it was time to move on the political track to end the conflict,
saying "now is the moment of truth."
"It would be a mistake by all of us if we
think that time is on our side," the special envoy said. "The best way
to proceed requires indeed instead an intensified engagement among the
key players in support of the Geneva parties."
De Mistura said he would work to move into
"real negotiation on a constitution and U.N.-supervised elections" while
exploring the issue of governance and terrorism "in parallel" files. He
expressed openness to any initiative that contributes to the U.N.-led
process in Geneva.
Opposition delegations – which do not
include Islamic State or other U.N.-designated terrorist groups – have
never spoken directly to Syrian government envoys under de Mistura’s
mediation.
Tillerson said any exit of Assad should be
done through the Geneva process, but such a departure was not a
"prerequisite" for that process to start.
In the past year, Assad’s Iran and
Russia-backed forces have recaptured Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest
city, and last month they reached the eastern city of Deir el-Zour,
which had long been under siege from IS fighters.
Assad’s forces and their allies have been
battling Islamic State just as U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led troops have
pummeled the U.N.-designated terror group on another front: The Syrian
Democratic Forces recently ousted the jihadi group from its so-called
capital, Raqqa.
Speaking Thursday with a Russian
delegation, Assad said the battlefield gains would pave the way for
political progress, and that his government was ready to hasten the pace
of national reconciliation.
He said his government would eventually address constitutional reforms and hold parliamentary elections.
Tillerson sought to play down any idea that
the Syrian government’s advances might amount to a "triumph" for Iran,
which has been a key backer of Assad.
"I see Iran as a hanger-on," Tillerson
said. "Iran has not been successful; the Russian government has been
more successful. We have had success. I don’t think that Iran should be
given credit for the defeat of ISIS in Syria."
Tillerson met with de Mistura during a stop
in Geneva on his way home from a trip to the Middle East and South
Asia. Officials said Tillerson had initially planned to meet with
officials from the U.N. refugee and migration agencies and the head of
the International Committee of the Red Cross, but those meetings did not
take place during his short visit in Geneva.
AP and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2017/10/27/no-role-for-assad-in-syrias-future-us-top-diplomat-says/
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