Washington: As the devastating war in Syria entered its fifth year yesterday, the US said it would have to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad as it aims to “reignite” new peace talks.
More than 215,000 people have been killed and half of the country’s population displaced, prompting human rights groups to accuse the international community of “failing Syria.”
Amid the dragging stalemate on the ground, the country has been carved up between government forces, jihadist groups, Kurdish fighters and the remaining non-jihadist rebels.
Diplomacy remains stalled, with two rounds of peace talks achieving no progress and even a proposal for a local ceasefire in Aleppo
fizzling out. After years of insisting Assad’s days were numbered, US Secretary of State John Kerry conceded Washington would have to negotiate with the iron-fisted leader to end the war.
“Well, we have to negotiate in the end. We’ve always been willing to negotiate in the context of the Geneva I process,” Kerry said in an interview with CBS television aired yesterday. Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, however, denied there was any shift in US policy.
“@JohnKerry repeated long-standing policy that we need negotiated process w/regime at table — did not say we wld negotiate directly w/Assad,” she said in a message on her Twitter account.
The conflict began as an anti-government uprising, with protesters taking to the streets on March 15, 2011. AFP
