Demands for Assad’s departure ‘thoughtless’, says Kremlin

MOSCOW / AP

The entire territory of Syria must be “liberated,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said in remarks televised on Saturday, dismissing demands for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s departure as “thoughtless.”
Dmitry Peskov said Assad needs to stay in power to prevent the country from falling into the hands of extremists.
“There are just two options: Assad sitting in Damascus or the Nusra sitting in Damascus,” Peskov said in a reference to the Nusra Front, Al-Qaida’s branch in Syria that renamed itself Fatah Al-Sham Front earlier this year. “And Assad must sit in Damascus to ensure a political settlement.”
Peskov’s statement comes as the break in the fighting Russia has declared in the besieged city of Aleppo entered its third day. He said Russia’s decision to extend the break, which was initially declared for just one day Thursday, wasn’t a concession to Western pressure.
The UN greeted the lull intended to allow the evacuation of wounded civilians and fighters from the rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo shattered by airstrikes, but the rebels have rejected the offer to evacuate and no evacuations were seen along the corridors created by the Syrian government.
A UN official told The Associated Press that Syrian opposition fighters were blocking the evacuations because the Syrian government and Russia were not holding up their end of the deal and were impeding deliveries of medical and humanitarian supplies into Aleppo. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the West was turning a blind eye to the Al-Qaida militants blocking humanitarian aid deliveries to Aleppo and trying to shift the blame onto Moscow.
“It’s mean and cynical to … watch the Nusra block the delivery of food and medicines to civilians while blaming Russia for the humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo,” she said.
Russia launched an air campaign in support of Assad a year ago, helping his forces win some key ground. The relentless bombing of Aleppo, the country’s largest city and its commercial hub before the war, has caused international outrage.
Peskov said the goal of the Russian campaign is to fight “terrorists,” saying that the fall of the Syrian government would cause new flows of refugees and more terror attacks in Europe.
“Some countries are trying play with the devil and use terrorists to get rid of Assad, and some just say thoughtlessly that Assad must leave,” Peskov said. “If Damascus falls and terrorists take hold there, there will be no political settlement then.” He said there is little hope that the Syrian conflict could end soon, adding that it will require a “long and hard work by the international community.”
“The territory of Syria must be liberated,” Peskov said. “It must be liberated and everything must be done to prevent the country’s breakup, which could have catastrophic consequences for the entire region.”
Asked if the deployment of a Russian aircraft carrier into the eastern Mediterranean was intended as a warning for the US against striking Assad’s forces, Peskov said Russia already has sufficient military assets in Syria.
The Admiral Kuznetsov carrier and escorting ships sailed through the English Channel on Friday en route to Syria’s shores. Russia has a navy repair supply facility in the Syrian port of Tartus, the only such outpost the country has outside the former Soviet Union.
“There are plenty of instruments already there to control the skies and the security of our infrastructure in Syria,” Peskov said.
Earlier this month, the Russian military warned the US against striking the Syrian army, stressing that Russian air defense weapons in Syria stand ready to fend off any attack.

France seeks sanctions over Syria chemical attacks

Paris / AFP

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Saturday asked the UN Security Council to condemn the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and urged that those behind the attacks be placed under sanctions.
“I want… a clear condemnation of these crimes in a resolution from the UN Security Council… that places the perpetrators under sanctions,” Ayrault said.
The minister’s comments came a day after UN experts said in a report that the Syrian army had attacked a village with chemical weapons in 2015. The IS group has also been accused of using mustard gas as a weapon.
“The Syrian army and IS have used chemical weapons against civilians on at least three occasions,” Ayrault said.
“These acts are inhuman and unacceptable,” he said in a statement.
“France will not accept that the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which has now been proven beyond doubt… should remain unpunished,” he said.
“We call on all our partners in the Security Council to assume their responsibility.”
The United States, Britain and France have repeatedly called for sanctions, particularly against the Syrian regime, over the use of chemical weapons in the five-year conflict. However President Bashar Al-Assad’s main backer Russia, a permanent Security Council member, has cast doubt on the UN experts’ findings, claiming that they are not sufficiently conclusive to warrant sanctions.