Further, the officials reportedly believed that previous negotiations and ceasefires, with Russia’s intervention, had not succeeded both in Syria, and demand stricter laws despite President Barack Obama’s resistance towards delving deeper into the crisis.
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USA backed Syrian rebels attend a training session in Maaret Ikhwan near Idlib, Syria.
Fifty-one mostly mid-level department officials who work on America’s Syria policy signed on.
“We are aware of a dissent channel cable written by a group of State Department employees regarding the situation in Syria”.
In the memo, the State Department officials argued that military action against Assad would help the fight against the Islamic State because it would bolster moderate Sunnis, who are necessary allies against the extremist group.
FILE – Rebel fighters from the First Regiment, part of the Free Syrian Army, fire a Grad rocket from Aleppo’s al-Haidariya neighborhood, toward forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad stationed in Talet al-Sheikh Youssef, Syria, May 29, 2016.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the dissent channel, established during the Vietnam War for employees to post policy disagreements, is “an important vehicle that the secretary, as well as the department institutionally, values and respects that allows department employees to express policy views candidly and privately to senior leadership”.
Russian Federation has staunchly backed Assad throughout the five-year Syrian conflict that started as an uprising against the Syrian ruler and morphed into an all-out civil war.
Communication between the USA and Russian militaries on Syria has been limited to contacts aimed at avoiding an accidental clash as they carry out rival bombing campaigns and small numbers of US forces operate on the ground.
Russian Federation on Thursday bombed US-backed fighters in southern Syria, according to a USA official in Washington, who said the aggressive action by Moscow raises “serious concern”.
“The “dissent channel cable” was signed by 51 State Department officers involved with advising on Syria policy in various capacities, according to an official familiar with the document”, NYT added.
Moscow says that it targets “terrorists” in its raids, but it has been accused of hitting non-jihadist rebels in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“Sounds like the Russians have put themselves in a position which we hoped they’d never be”, said Coats.
“The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable….” “The status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges”. Everyone wants a miracle cure in the Middle East: the mythical “just right” military response that doesn’t involve ground troops; won’t get any Americans killed; and doesn’t take very long-but that will be magically effective anyway.
Nevertheless, Obama has said Assad must relinquish control if there is to be peace.
“It is not a secret to us that there are political forces in the USA who favor a military solution [to the Syrian crisis]”.
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“There needed to be a way for people to professionally disagree inside the organization, without going outside” the State Department, former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann told VOA on Friday.
