Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes already, mostly from northern Aleppo province, with many flocking to the border with Turkey seeking entry.
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The conflict has fueled the meteoric rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, which controls large swathes of the country. On top of this, when ISIS (Islamic State – IS) were butchering Kurds openly along border areas between Syria and Turkey, then the armed forces of this North Atlantic Treaty Organisation nation just stood and watched.
Assad said his government has “fully believed in negotiations and in political action since the beginning of the crisis”.
“The issue here is that Nusra is completely embedded within the Syrian opposition and therefore retains the ability to spoil even localized cease-fire agreements”, said Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria specialist at the institute and one of the authors of the report.
But if not, he said, “the solution will take a long time and will incur a heavy price”.
Russia, Syria and Iran argue that other groups, notably some supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, should not be eligible for the cease-fire, and there was no sign Friday that those differences had been resolved.
Commenting on the interview, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at a news briefing: “He’s deluded if he thinks that there is a military solution to the conflict in Syria”.
Moscow says its more than four-month-old bombing campaign in Syria targets ISIS and other “terrorists”, but critics accuse Russian Federation of focusing on mainstream rebels. The U.S. countered with demands for an immediate stop to the fighting.
“Western refined experts must know that not all terrorists in Syria are walking with black flags and writings on their backs about belonging to a terrorist grouping”, the Russian statement said.
A diplomatic push for a temporary pause in Syria’s civil war and the delivery of humanitarian aid faced huge hurdles Friday, with Russian Federation saying it would continue its airstrikes and government planes dropping leaflets urging rebels to surrender because “the belt is narrowing around you”. “Obviously we welcome any efforts to halt the violence, or any efforts to reduce the impact of the Russian bombing, or more importantly deliver aid, food aid, and supplies to the besieged areas…. Now there is a chance to save this process”, German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christiane Wirzt said.
“What is important now is embracing this opportunity, stopping the air strikes, ceasing targeting civilians and providing humanitarian access”, added Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Twitter.
The working group on the ceasefire in Syria, which will be chaired by Russia and the U.S., is scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland next week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told TASS.
However, analysts remained sceptical about the chances of ending a war that has killed more than 260,000 people and displaced more than half the population.
“In many ways this Munich meeting was thrust to the fore by the situation in Aleppo, and yet the conditions of the agreement do not seem to apply to Aleppo”, said Barnes-Dacey.
Assad acknowledged “mistakes” but said “we do not claim that we, in the Middle East, have reached a stage of significant political openness”. “This is important”, said Michael Williams, a former United Nations diplomat in Lebanon and now at London’s Chatham House think tank.
Time and again in the past five years, the Assad regime has been guilty of hubris, monstrous miscalculation and underestimation of the complexity of the struggle.
The bombardments have forced at least 50,000 people to flee, left the opposition virtually encircled and killed an estimated 500 people since they began on February 1 – the latest hellish twist in a war that has claimed more than a quarter-million lives.
When asked about a recent proposal from Saudi Arabia to send in ground troops to Syria, the prime minister answered that “the Americans and our Arab partners must consider whether or not they want a permanent war”.
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“If the coalition should decide to deploy special forces in the fight against Daesh in Syria, Saudi-Arabia will be ready to participate”, he said, using the initials Daesh to refer to Daesh.
