The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Syria conflict: John Kerry says US needs to negotiate with Bashar al-Assad as conflict enters fifth year

The United States will have to negotiate with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for a political transition in Syria and is exploring ways to pressure him into agreeing to talks, US secretary of state John Kerry has said in an interview.

Syria’s civil war is now into its fifth year, with hundreds of thousands killed and millions of Syrians displaced.

Washington has long insisted Mr Assad must be replaced through a negotiated, political transition, but the rise of a common enemy in hardline militant group Islamic State (IS), appears to have slightly softened the West’s stance towards him.

In the CBS interview, Mr Kerry did not repeat the standard US line that Mr Assad had lost all legitimacy and had to go, opting for a softer diplomatic touch.

“We have to negotiate in the end,” Mr Kerry said.

Mr Kerry said the US and other countries, were exploring ways to reignite the diplomatic process to end the conflict in Syria.

“To get the Assad regime to negotiate, we’re going to have to make it clear to him that there is a determination by everybody to seek that political outcome and change his calculation about negotiating,” he said.

“It may require that there be increased pressure on him of various kinds in order to do that.

“We are looking at increased steps that can help bring about that pressure … I am convinced that, with the efforts of our allies and others, there will be increased pressure on Assad.”

The United States led efforts to convene UN-backed peace talks in Geneva last year between Western-backed Syrian opposition representatives and a government delegation. The talks collapsed after two rounds and no fresh talks have been scheduled.

Fours years in, Syrian forces ramp up offensive

Mr Kerry’s comments came as Syria’s air force carried out major air strikes on the insurgent stronghold of Douma city, northeast of Damascus, killing 18 people wounding at least 100, including children and other civilians.

Overnight, Syria’s military killed dozens of combatants in southern Syria linked to al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front including three senior members, state media reported.

“The army… targeted a gathering of terrorists from a group affiliated with Nusra Front in al-Sweiseh in the Quneitra countryside, killing dozens of terrorists including three of their leaders,” state news agency SANA said regarding the overnight clash.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian military helicopters had dropped barrel bombs in central Quneitra.

They targeted an area where insurgent Islamic brigades and Nusra Front had been battling Hezbollah and Syrian militias for several weeks, it said.

Before the southern offensive, Syrian troops had lost control of large areas of countryside near Jordan as well as parts along the frontier with Israel near the Golan Heights, according to regional military analysts and diplomats.

This month marks the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the conflict.

The said more than 215,000 people have been killed since the start of the crisis in March 2011, around half of them civilians.

More than half of Syria’s population has been displaced, according to the UN.

Syria sank into civil war after a peaceful street uprising against four decades of Assad family rule began in March 2011.

The revolt spiralled into an armed insurgency, which has deepened with the rise of Islamic State and other extremists.

Syrian children

Four years into the conflict, Syria’s military has concentrated its forces in the south, the capital Damascus and areas along the country’s western coast.

Eastern areas are dominated by IS which is also fighting Kurdish forces in the north.

Syria’s army and allied combatants from Lebanon’s Hezbollah last month launched a large-scale offensive against insurgent groups, including Nusra Front and non-jihadist rebels.

Southern Syria is one of the last areas where mainstream rebels opposing president Bashar al-Assad have a foothold. They have lost ground to hardline Islamist militants in the war.

The Syrian government describes all insurgents in the civil war as hardline enemies of the state funded by foreign countries.

 

 

Reuters

ABC