US Accepts Assad Staying in Syria -- But Won't Give Aid

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

The United States said Monday it was no longer seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but renewed warnings it would not fund reconstruction unless the regime is "fundamentally different."

James Jeffrey, the US special representative in Syria, said that Assad needed to compromise as he had not yet won the brutal seven-year civil war, estimating that some 100,000 armed opposition fighters remained in Syria.

"We want to see a regime that is fundamentally different. It's not regime change -- we're not trying to get rid of Assad," Jeffrey said at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

Estimating that Syria would need $300-400 billion to rebuild, Jeffrey warned that Western powers and international financial institutions would not commit funds without a change of course.

"There is a strong readiness on the part of Western nations not to ante up money for that disaster unless we have some kind of idea that the government is ready to compromise and thus not create yet another horror in the years ahead," he said.

Former president Barack Obama had called for Assad to go, although he doubted the wisdom of a robust US intervention in the complex Syrian war and kept a narrow military goal of defeating the Islamic State extremist group.

President Donald Trump's administration has acknowledged, if rarely so explicitly, that Assad is likely to stay.

But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned in October that the United States would not provide "one single dollar" for Syria's reconstruction if Iran stays.

Jeffrey also called for the ouster of Iranian forces, whose presence is strongly opposed by neighboring Israel, although he said the United States accepted that Tehran would maintain some diplomatic role in the country.

Jeffrey also said that the United States wanted a Syria that does not wage chemical weapons attacks or torture its own citizens.

He acknowledged, however, that the United States may not find an ally anytime soon in Syria, saying: "It doesn't have to be a regime that we Americans would embrace as, say, qualifying to join the European Union if the European Union would take Middle Eastern countries."

Comments 6
Thumb thepatriot 18 December 2018, 10:20

This is very bad news... how can the world accept that this brutal tyrant keeps the power... disgusting! Can we not find one independent, clean, strong leader in Syria?

Thumb Mystic 18 December 2018, 17:27

The real tyrants are the Americans Western leaders and all the Gulf nations plus Turkey, after all that funding in the destruction of Syria, they will not even aid in rebuilding it.

Just because they wanted Syria to be destroyed, they got what they wanted only thing they did not achieve was Assads ouster.
Good thing Assad won, because the Salafis will have to think twice before ever making such a "revolution" again.

Salafism is extinct outside of Idlib, nobody dares to play caliphate anymore, only in the West the Salafis can speak freely.

Missing ysurais 18 December 2018, 12:59

no better than Basho, look at this beautiful smile.. at least a strong man, clean, decent, all the good stuff in him..lol

Thumb thepatriot 18 December 2018, 20:04

ps: Oil reserves in Syria 2,5 B... in Iraq... 140B!!

Thumb doodle-dude 19 December 2018, 05:57

lol@the 'Christian shia Western'

Thumb chrisrushlau 19 December 2018, 18:41

Racism is not just a cancer in a state's legal system. It is a rot in a racist's mind. Look at US/EU support for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, whose official religion is takfirism, the very ideology of the Islamic State, and yet, because the KSA keeps Arabs in line and battles democratic (by comparison) Iran, so racist Israel can survive, that KSA extremism is okay. KSA is as much a victim of US/EU/Israeli racism as the direct victims, like Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, are. EU ambassador Lassen: Lebanon's "stability and security". Hah!