US bows to Russian demand to keep Assad in office. Israel follows suit
- 8 years ago
After two tries, US Secretary of State John Kerry finally turned President Barack Obama away from his four-year insistence that Bashar Assad must go, as a precondition for a settlement of the Syrian conflict.
Tuesday, night, Dec. 15, the Secretary announced in Moscow: “The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change.”
After Kerry's first try, Obama still stuck to his guns.
He said in Manilla on Nov.19 that he didn’t believe the civil war in Syria “will end while the dictator remains in power.”
Almost a month went by and then, Tuesday night, after a day of dickering with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov culminating in a joint conference with Putin at the Kremlin, Kerry confirmed this evolution in US policy.
The focus now, he said, is "not on our differences about what can or cannot be done immediately about Assad."
Rather, it is on facilitating a peace process in which "Syrians will be making decisions for the future of Syria."
Tuesday, night, Dec. 15, the Secretary announced in Moscow: “The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change.”
After Kerry's first try, Obama still stuck to his guns.
He said in Manilla on Nov.19 that he didn’t believe the civil war in Syria “will end while the dictator remains in power.”
Almost a month went by and then, Tuesday night, after a day of dickering with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov culminating in a joint conference with Putin at the Kremlin, Kerry confirmed this evolution in US policy.
The focus now, he said, is "not on our differences about what can or cannot be done immediately about Assad."
Rather, it is on facilitating a peace process in which "Syrians will be making decisions for the future of Syria."