Syria’s Assad says Moscow ‘never’ spoke of departure

Beirut / AFP

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday he has never faced pressure from Russia to step aside, as US Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Moscow seeking to revive stalled peace efforts.
Speaking to NBC News in Damascus, Assad insisted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had never raised the issue of his departure or a political transition. “Only the Syrian people define who’s going to be the president, when to come, and when to go. They never said a single word regarding this,” he said.
Assad’s fate is a key question in efforts to bring about a negotiated settlement to Syria’s five-year civil war.
Washington and Moscow have backed a roadmap that calls for a nationwide ceasefire and Geneva-based talks on “political transition.”
But there has been little progress towards a hoped-for resumption of talks this month, and the prospects for a political transition beginning by August, as laid out in the road map, now appear slim. Kerry was due to arrive in Moscow, a close ally of Assad’s government that launched air strikes in support of regime forces last September.
Kerry said before leaving Washington that he would meet Putin “to see if we can somehow advance this (the peace process) in the important ways that people want us to.”

Kerry ‘extremely frustrated’
Moscow and Washington brokered a landmark partial ceasefire in Syria in February but it has since all but collapsed amid continued heavy fighting.
Kerry’s spokesman John Kirby told reporters his boss was “extremely frustrated” with the failure of peace efforts and “his patience was growing thin”.
In Washington, many observers have criticised Kerry’s outreach to Russia on Syria, arguing he has been strung along by Putin as he seeks to protect his client Assad.
But Kirby insisted the administration is not being naive, and that Thursday’s visit to Moscow, Kerry’s third this year, would “probe the sincerity” of Putin’s promises.
Syria’s conflict began in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government demonstrations and has evolved into a complex multi-front war that has left more than 280,000 dead and forced millions from their homes.
Efforts to bring an end to the war have taken on greater urgency since the emergence of the IS group, which seized control of large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in mid-2014.
The extremist group has committed widespread atrocities in areas under its control and organised or inspired a wave of attacks across the Middle East and in Western cities.
A US-led coalition is carrying out air strikes against the extremists in Syria and Iraq and recent months have seen IS lose significant territory.

Colvin ‘responsible’ for death
According to the Post, which cited sections of what it said was a draft agreement, US and Russian commanders would set up a joint command and control centre to direct intensified air strikes against the groups. Such a deal is likely to face criticism that it amounts to a tacit acceptance of Putin’s efforts to shore up Assad’s regime.
In his interview with NBC, Assad also said a US reporter killed in alleged Syrian government bombardment in 2012 was responsible for her own death.
Marie Colvin, a 56-year-old war correspondent working for British newspaper The Sunday Times, died in the rebel-held Baba Amr district of Syria’s third city Homs. “It’s a war and she came illegally to Syria. She worked with the terrorists, and because she came illegally, she’s been responsible of everything that befall on her,” Assad said, speaking in English.
Asked if she was responsible for her own death, Assad replied “of course,” though he denied that his forces had targeted her. His comments came days after relatives of Colvin filed a lawsuit in a US court alleging Assad’s regime targeted her to stop her covering government atrocities.
The suit, based on information from captured government documents as well as defectors, claims the Syrian military intercepted Colvin’s communications and unleashed a barrage of rocket fire on her location, killing her and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

No solution to Syria while Assad remains: Turkish PM

Istanbul / AFP

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has warned there can be no solution to the Syrian conflict or the threat from extremists while President Bashar al-Assad remains in charge.
In recent days, Yildirim has repeatedly said Turkey would seek good relations with Syria after diplomatic successes with Israel and Russia, raising speculation of a possible change in Turkish policy.
However in an interview with the BBC, Yildirim said Assad had to go because with him in charge, the conflict would not be solved.
“On one hand, there’s Assad and on the other, IS. If you ask, should we prefer Assad or IS, we cannot choose one over the other. They both have to go — they’re both trouble for Syrians,” he said.
“Let’s imagine we got rid of IS, the problem still won’t be solved. As long as Assad is there, the problem won’t be solved. Another terrorist organisation wouldemerge.”
He accused the Assad regime of creating IS through its policy of killing its own citizens deliberately.
There has been confusion this week over whether Turkish policy towards Syria and Assad was changing after several terror attacks by IS in Istanbul and in the capital Ankara in
October.

US to offer Russia
anti-terror pact in Syria

Paris / AFP

The United States is to offer to cooperate with Russia in joint military action against the Al-Nusra Front and IS extremist groups in Syria, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was on his way to Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin, did not deny the report, but refused to discuss the proposal in detail until he had been to the Kremlin.
According to the Post, which cited sections of what it said was a draft agreement, US and Russian commanders would set up a joint command and control centre to direct intensified air strikes against the extremist groups.
Currently, Russian forces in Syria are operating in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime against a variety of rebel factions while a US-led coalition focuses its fire on the IS group.
Any deal between the great power rivals would be controversial, since for many — including critics of US President Barack Obama in Washington — it would amount to a tacit acceptance of Putin’s efforts to shore up Assad’s regime.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the report before Moscow had received Washington’s proposal.
He said the Kremlin has reiterated the need for “the coordination of joint efforts” in the fight against jihadist groups in Syria and regretted Washington’s reluctance to cooperate with Russia militarily in the war-torn country.
Kerry was to hold talks first with Putin at the Kremlin followed by a meeting with his opposite number Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday.
Asked if he wanted to comment on the reported US offer of a military pact, Kerry said: “I don’t right now. I’ll have comments. I’m going to Moscow, meeting with President Putin tonight, and we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it.”
“I’ll give you all a sense of where we are,” he added.
According to the Post, Kerry was to propose to Putin that Russia and the United States set up a “Joint Implementation Group” or JIG to “enable extended coordination” between their militaries on the Syrian battlefields.