The United States said yesterday it was willing to work with Russia, as well as Iran, to try to end the Syrian civil war but the two big powers clashed over whether or not Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be included.
Speaking at the annual United Nations General Assembly, US President Barack Obama described Assad as a tyrant and as the chief culprit behind the four-year civil war in which at least 200,000 people have died and millions driven from their homes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in contrast, told the gathering of world leaders that there was no alternative to cooperating with Assad’s military in an effort to defeat the Islamic State militant group, which has seized swathes of territory in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
The disagreement raised questions about how Obama and Putin might find common ground.
“The US is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict,” said Obama, who spoke before Putin. “But we must recognise that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the pre-war status quo.”
Russia has started a military build-up in Syria
Obama did not explicitly call for Assad’s ouster and he suggested there could be a “managed transition” away from his rule, the latest sign that despite US animus toward the Syrian leader it was willing to see him stay for some period of time.
He dismissed the argument that authoritarianism was the only way to combat groups such as Islamic State, saying: “In accordance with this logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al-Assad, who drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent children, because the alternative is surely worse.”
Putin, in contrast, suggested there was no other option.
“We think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the Syrian government and its armed forces who are valiantly fighting terrorism face to face,” Putin said during his speech before the UN General Assembly.
“We should finally acknowledge that no one but President Assad’s armed forces and Kurdish militia are truly fighting the Islamic State and other terrorist organisations in Syria,” he said.
French President François Hollande and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu both rejected the possibility of allowing Assad to stay.
In voicing a willingness to deal with Iran and Russia, staunch backers of Assad, Obama was acknowledging their influence in Syria and swallowing a bitter pill for the US. Tehran has armed the Syrian government and, through its backing of Lebanese Hizbollah fighters, has helped Assad combat rebels seeking to end his family’s four-decade rule. Russia has started a military build-up in Syria, where it has a naval base that serves as its foothold in the Middle East.