Emmanuel. Ukudolo l Wednesday, April 12, 2017
MOSCOW, Russia – The United States and Russia, two powerful nations fighting to bring about peace in Syria have ruled out military confrontation targeted at ousting President Bashar Al-Assad from power.
Influential Ministers from both countries, U.S Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov made the revelation after a closed door meeting in Moscow, Russia.
After carefully reflecting on events of the past based on ouster of former presidents like Saddam Hussain of Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi of Lybia, the situation in Sudan and other places, they settled for a political solution that will not accomodate Al-Assad and his family in any way.
“So this insistence on removing or ousting a dictator or totalitarian leader – we have already been through it. We very well know, only too well, what happens when you do that. I don’t remember any case of a dictator being removed smoothly, without violence.
“So in Syria – and I have stressed this on many times – we are not staking everything on a personality, on President Assad, as is being done in Libya at the moment. We are simply insisting that everybody sits around a table and talks about it and comes to agreement. As has been enshrined in the Security Council resolution, we want to install dialogue with all the players concerned, and we want the Syrians themselves, without any kind of exclusion, to be represented in this process”, Lavrov said.
Also speaking, Tillerson said both countries did discuss at length the future role for Assad, whether it be in a future political process or not.
“Clearly, our view is that the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end, and they have again brought this on themselves with their conduct of the war these past few years. We discussed our view that Russia, as their closest ally in the conflict, perhaps has the best means of helping Assad recognize this reality.
“We do think it’s important that Assad’s departure is done in an orderly way – an orderly way – so that certain interests and constituencies that he represents feel they have been represented at the negotiating table for a political solution. How that occurs, we leave that to the process going forward.
“We do not think one has to occur before the other can begin. And it will take a pace of its own. But the final outcome in our view does not provide for a role for the Assad – for Assad or for the Assad family in the future governance of Syria. We do not think the international community will accept that. We do not think the world will accept that,”, Tillerson said.
