Kerry says have to 'talk to Asad'

Crescent International

Jumada' al-Ula' 24, 1436 2015-03-15

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

Has the US finally realized the futility of its policy in Syria? US Secretary of State John Kerry's latest statement seems to give the clearest indication that US policy of trying to topple the government of President Bashar al Asad has failed. Instead, takfiri monsters have emerged that go around beheading people, eating their organs and burning people alive. Even America's warlords seem to have had enough. Kerry wants to talk to Asad. Good!

Washington DC,
Sunday March 15, 2015, 15:57 DST

Has the US government had a change of heart and finally realized that the war it unleashed against the government of President Bashar al Asad is going nowhere? The only solution, according to US Secretary of State John Kerry is a “diplomatic solution. There is no military solution.” Kerry seems to have had enough.

Kerry was speaking to US television network CBS News on Sunday (March 15) at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh where a number of countries have gathered to shore up the basket case regime of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt. The top US diplomat seems to have concluded, finally, or made to realize the futility of war. In the clearest indication yet that the west has to negotiate with Asad, Kerry said he wants to restart negotiations with him to end the conflict in Syria.

In his TV interview, Kerry framed it as if it was the Asad regime that was refusing to hold talks and was bent on a military solution. As recently as March 12, a US state department official repeated the old line that Asad had to go but Kerry said today: "We are working very hard with other interested parties to see if we can re-ignite a diplomatic outcome." Admitting that there was “No military solution”—it was not for lack of trying—but the US, its Nato and regional allies have found that they have created a monster in the ISIS takfiri terrorists, and Kerry is now chasing a “diplomatic solution.”

Kerry said the US was working with the “moderate” opposition in Syria as well as pursuing a diplomatic track with "a number of different critical players in this tragedy". "Everybody agrees there is no military solution; there's only a political solution," he said. The US has "always been willing to negotiate in the context of the Geneva I process," he added, referring to the 2012 plan that called for establishing a transitional governing body, but had insisted Asad had to go.

Four years of blood-letting seems to have convinced the western do-gooders that Asad is going nowhere. Whether the west likes him or not, whether the west’s Arabian and other regional puppets like it or not, Asad is there to stay. This is because the Syrian army and establishment have not disintegrated as it happened in other places, like Libya. The so-called moderate Syrian rebels have turned out to be not so moderate. In fact, they have turned out to be organ eaters, beheaders and burning people alive.

Commenting on Kerry’s statement, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus wrote on the British outlet’s website: “Mr Kerry's comments are the clearest indication yet that Washington is coming to terms with the reality that its Syria policy is going nowhere.” He went on: “Frequent declarations that President Assad is ‘part of the problem and needs to go’ are all very well, but there is simply no sign of him being toppled.”

The shift in US policy was hinted at by CIA Director John Brennan two days earlier when he said the US had “legitimate concerns” about who might replace Asad given the rise of ISIS. "None of us, Russia, the United States, coalition, and regional states, wants to see a collapse of the government and political institutions in Damascus," Brennan said. "The last thing we want to do is allow them [ISIS] to march into Damascus," Brennan added.

END