The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Macron: Syria will be rid of Daesh by end February

French President Emmanuel Macron Sunday predicted Daesh (ISIS) would be crushed in Syria by February, pushing for the Syrian government and opposition to come together for fresh peace talks early next year. “We have just won the war in Iraq with the coalition,” Macron said in an interview with France 2 television.

“And I think that by the middle to the end of February, we will have won the war in Syria.”

The French president described President Bashar Assad as “an enemy of the Syrian people,” but insisted: “We have to speak to Assad and his representatives.”

And despite this week’s failure of the latest U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva, he wants to see “a process emerge at the start of next year with Assad’s representatives, but I hope also representatives of all of the opposition.”

He underlined that France’s top priority as part of the U.S.-led coalition pounding Daesh is “the extermination” of the militant group rather than ousting Assad, which has been the country’s official stance since June.

And the Syrian president will not be leaving any time soon after the defeat of Daesh, Macron said.

“Bashar Assad will be there,” he said. “He will be there because he is protected by those who have won the war on the ground, whether it’s Iran or Russia.”

However, at some point, Macron said, Assad “will have to respond to his crimes before his people, before the international courts.”

“France’s plan is to win peace, de-mine the country, to demilitarize it and build a political solution that will allow a durable peace – which means all minorities being protected: Christians, Shiites and Sunnis,” Macron said.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a rally in the central province of Karaman that his country would not allow “terror nests” near its border, referring to areas held by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria. Erdogan expanded on the list of areas that need to be cleared.

“We will clean Afrin of terrorists, we will clean Manbij of terrorists. We will clean Tel Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli of terrorists,” he said.

Erdogan has frequently expressed frustration with the Syrian Kurdish militant group’s presence along Turkey’s border, but it’s rare that he mentions Qamishli, a town further east controlled by both the Syrian Kurds and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.

Turkey has a military presence in the western Syrian province of Idlib as part of a de-escalation agreement struck with Russia and Iran. The province borders YPG-controlled Afrin and Turkey has threatened to attack the group there.

Turkish officials regularly criticize the U.S. for backing and arming Syrian Kurds in combatting Daesh, a sticky issue in already tense bilateral relations.

Last month, Turkey’s foreign minister said President Donald Trump promised to stop arming the militant group but the Pentagon said it was reviewing the process, stopping short of announcing a halt to weapons transfers.

Erdogan chided the NATO member’s allies, saying they “will really be our allies when they stop working with structures we consider terror organizations in Syria.”

Meanwhile, clashes between regime and opposition forces continued in the opposition held areas.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sunday that the northern countryside of Hama, the areas in Al-Sa’en Al-Aswad town in the northern countryside of Homs, and the Al-Marj area and Al-Rihan town in Eastern Ghouta witnessed violent clashes and intensive shelling started by Syrian government.

As fighting continues in a multi-faceted war that has killed more than 340,000 people since 2011, Daesh, which once controlled swathes of land, now holds just a few patches of Syrian territory.

Source: Macron: Syria will be rid of Daesh by end February | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR