Tillerson: Syrian People Should Decide Al-Assad’s Fate

Local Editor

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Syrian crisis can only be solved through a political process, claiming it's not regime change but the defeat of Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL' group] that Washington is seeking in Syria.

"Our strategy in Syria, our priority is first to defeat Daesh," Tillerson said in an interview with ABC's "This Week" host, George Stephanopoulos, which was aired Sunday.

Saying that once the battle with the terrorist group is concluded, which according to the US official is "going quite well," Washington plans to turn its attention "to achieving ceasefire agreements between the regime and opposition forces."

Bringing the parties to the table for political discussions "clearly requires the participation of the regime and the support of their allies," Tillerson said in another Sunday interview to the American media, speaking to John Dickerson on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Once a ceasefire becomes a reality in Syria, "we will have the conditions to begin a useful political process," he said.

"It is through that political process that we believe the Syrian people will ultimately be able to decide the fate of Bashar Assad," he told ABC.

Tillerson reiterated the same on CBS, saying that Washington hoped to work with its coalition members and with the UN, "in particular through the Geneva process," to be able to "navigate a political outcome in which the Syrian people will in fact determine Bashar Assad's fate and his legitimacy."

The US Secretary of State underlined the Russian role in the process, saying that the US hoped it could work together with Russia "and use their influence," and that Moscow "will choose to play a constructive role in supporting ceasefire through their own Astana talks, but also through Geneva."

Speaking of the US missile strike on a Syrian airbase, ordered by President Donald Trump "in response" to the alleged use of chemical weapons, Tillerson told CBS that "clearly the message is that the violation of international norms, the continuing ignoring of UN resolutions and the continuing violation of agreements... will no longer be tolerated."

The airstrike is only related to the alleged chemical attack, Tillerson claimed.

"Obviously the United States' own founding principle is self-determination, and what the US and our allies want to do is to enable the Syrian people to make that determination... We've seen what violent regime change looks like in Libya and the kind of chaos that can be unleashed and indeed the kind of misery that it enacts on its own people," he said on CBS.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team