Speaking at Foreign Policy’s annual Transformational Trends forum in Washington, D.C., Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Russia’s military intervention to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad had “ironically” hastened progress toward a potential diplomatic solution to the conflict, which has killed some 250,000 people and sparked the largest refugee crisis since World War II.
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Assad said, contrary to what Erdoğan planned to do, the Russian support against terrorism would be stronger.
Blinken’s comments came just weeks after leaders from the United States, Russia, Britain, Iran, and Saudi Arabia met in Vienna to sign a statement in support of a January 1, 2016, deadline for the start of negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition.
“Russia has huge influence on Assad, but does not use it correctly”.
Russian Federation began airstrikes on Daesh positions in Syria on September 30 at the request of the Syrian government.
“I believe that [French President Francois] Hollande’s call to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin after those horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, his suggestion to coordinate our efforts and President [Putin’s] response, which was the willingness to do so as allies – those things signify that now level-headed politicians are dropping secondary issues and realizing the need to concentrate on the biggest issue at hand: stopping ISIS’ attempts to spread influence globally”, the minister said. No Christians or members of other Syrian religious minorities have been admitted during this time, according to data from the State Department Refugee Processing Center. “We must not rule anything out”, Valls said.
It’s a marked shift for him and Obama who said previously that Assad should go immediately to make way for a political change in Syria.
A Syrian military source told Reuters last week rebels were making heavy use of U.S.-made anti-tank missiles paid for by Saudi Arabia and supplied via Turkey and the weapons were having an impact on the battlefield.
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“[The next] day the situation will be better and in a few months we will have full peace in Syria, definitely”.
