US: Solution in Syria requires Assad's departure

WASHINGTON

U.S. officials acknowledged Wednesday that the solution to the crisis in Syria would ultimately require Bashar al-Assad's removal, even though coalition operations does not target his regime.

National Security Adviser Susan Rice said the solution in Syria will “ultimately have to result in Assad’s departure.”

“You have an illegitimate and exceedingly violent leadership that has created conditions not only that have been so harmful to the population, but have made it a very attractive magnet for terrorists,” said Rice speaking at the Harman Center for the Arts based in Washington.

The idea that Assad has caused the chaos that opened a safe haven for extremists has been uttered by several American officials.

The ongoing U.S. operations in Syria and Iraq, however, have spared Assad’s forces and the Obama administration has made it clear that airstrikes in both countries would be limited to ISIL targets.  

Still, Assad’s departure is going to be critical for lasting stability in Syria, said Rice.

Rice’s deputy, Tony Blinken, speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said that the train-equip program that the coalition would sponsor for moderate Syrian opposition fighters would also fight the Assad regime.

Responding to a question as to why airstrikes do not target Assad forces barrel bombing Sunni civilians, Blinken said the strategic plan of the coalition is ultimately destroy ISIL.

The coalition has a specific plan to defeat and make ISIL roll back, he said. “If we focus on every event popping up here and there then the strategic plan we draw would not succeed."

In addition to hundreds of airstrikes, the U.S. has also conducted several humanitarian operations in Iraq and Syria that served as an incentive for several nations to join the coalition, but still the U.S. is well aware that there are challenges to keep the coalition together.

Blinken said the challenge against to keep the coalition is to deal with the different agendas that each country has for joining the alliance. But in the end Blinken added the “glue holding them together” is ISIL’s violence.  

Touching upon Turkey’s role, Blinken said it is a “critical and essential part of the coalition."

As ISIL militants launched an intensive offensive on the northern Syrian town of Kobani, Turkey offered a "land bridge" for Kurdish Regional Government forces to pass to Kobani.

“Thanks to Turkey, peshmerga forces and Free Syrian Army forces passed to Kobani,” he said. “Turks played the leading role to make this happen.”

He also touched upon Turkey’s anti-ISIL efforts including undertaking the train-equip program for the Syrian opposition and cracking down on the flow of foreign fighters into neighboring countries to join ISIL. 

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