Kerry, speaking to reporters in Copenhagen on Friday, said “I haven’t had a chance to see it yet (the cable) but I agree with the process”.
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The Journal report said the memo was signed by 51 mid- to high-level senior State Department officials.
The Obama administration has attempted to steer clear of attacking Assad’s regime because they argue it could embroil the U.S.in direct conflict with Russian Federation and Iran.
When the first strikes hit, the rebels called a USA command center in Qatar, where the Pentagon orchestrates the daily air war against Islamic State.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had only seen media reports about the memo, but said: “Calls for the violent overthrow of authorities in another country are unlikely to be accepted in Moscow”.
“If not, then it says something about the quality of the information upon which they make airstrikes”.
One US official, who did not sign the cable but has read it, told Reuters the White House remained opposed to deeper American military involvement in the Syrian conflict.
“Dozens” of top State officials have signed a document “protesting” U.S. policy in Syria for being focused on fighting ISIS.
But in the cable, officials say Russian Federation and Assad have not taken past negotiations and ceasefires seriously; thus, they suggest a “more muscular military posture” going forward, the Journal reports.
Though such memos are not all that unusual, the number of workers signing this particular cable is.
These officials said dissent on Syria policy has been nearly a constant since civil war broke out there in 2011. “They mostly supported Assad and fueled the civil war”, he said.
The advance of the SDF was recently halted until more Arab rebels were rolled into the force, Western diplomats say, after the opposition protested the ethnic composition of the group, as did some of its regional allies. In 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed arming and training anti-Assad rebels. Such a step would represent a radical shift in the administration’s approach, and there is little evidence that President Barack Obama has plans to change course.
USA -backed attempts to train “moderate” rebels and craft a negotiated political transition that would see Assad step down have also failed.
Washington has refused to join forces with Russian Federation in Syria against Islamic State, accusing Russian Federation of acting exclusively to prop up Assad’s government.
State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed the existence of the cable but would not go into detail about the contents.
The “dissent channel” mechanism, which allows officials to offer alternative views on foreign policy without fear of retaliation, was established during the Vietnam War in the 1960s so that senior officials of the state department could access alternative policy views. In a rare open hearing, Brennan gave the Senate intelligence committee an update on the threat from Islamic extremists and shared his views on a myriad of other topics, including encryption, Russian Federation and Syria.
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“Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach”, he said.
