Alwaght- The US retreat in Syria was completed following the remarks made by John Kerry during his visit to Moscow. The US Secretary of State has succumbed to the Russian and Iranian demands about the future of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, implying that it was the Syrian people who were to decide on him. The new stance is coming while since the beginning of the crisis the Americans insisted on unconditional stepping down of President al-Assad, however they backed down from their position, accepting that he could remain in power during the transitional period in the country but that he should not have any place in Syria's political future.
Following his lengthy talks with the Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, Kerry noted that the US and its partners sought no "so-called regime change" in Syria, though he immediately continued that "the US would continue to believe that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has no possibility of remaining the country’s leader in the future". "The talks didn’t focus on what can or can’t be done immediately about Assad” but rather on establishing a political process where Syrians will be able to choose their own leader", John Kerry added. Kerry's remarks run counter to assertion of the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir who had threatened that Assad had to choose between leaving the power and facing a war.
Another US retreat
Al-Assad's fate has always been top on the agenda of any negotiations about Syria. While Washington and its allies insist that al-Assad should not have any role in Syria's future, Iran and Russia have rejected such an insistence, arguing that it is the Syrian people who have to decide on their leaders' future. The media have assessed that Kerry's fresh remarks indicated that the Washington acceded to Moscow's stance on Syria." The statement appeared to be the most explicit sign yet that the US is softening its policy towards Assad and marked a significant rhetorical shift for the US towards Russia’s policy in Syria, which previously American officials have said was almost fundamentally at odds with their own", ABC new website noted, pointing in a report to John Kerry's remarks during his Moscow visit. Kerry also said that the Russian and American views on Syria were basically similar to each other. While since Russia's direct military presence in Syria the Americans saw Moscow's move as contrary to the US interests, but as the ABC news website added "Kerry’s efforts to shift the discussion away from Assad’s personal future, seemed to bring the US closer to Moscow’s position." The AP also called Kerry's remarks as a sign of US policy's shift about President al-Assad in the past few months." President Barack Obama first called on Assad to leave power in the summer of 2011, with "Assad must go" being a consistent rallying cry. Later, American officials allowed that he wouldn't have to resign on "Day One" of a transition. Now, no one can say when Assad might step down", the AP continued. Additionally, the Israeli website DEBEKAfile.com, which is close to Tel Aviv's intelligence agency, noted that the US was giving in to the Russian position that Bashar al-Assad must stay in power, as well as accepting the Iranian key role in West Asia region's affairs. It added that Washington has yielded to Moscow's demand that the Syrian president should remain in power, the same approach was taken by Israeli regime. Its seems that the massive flow of the refugees to Europe, the recent ISIS attacks in Western countries, the failed program to train the Syrian moderate opposition and most importantly the experience of regime changes in Iraq and Libya have pushed the White House to pursue diplomatic solutions. So it accepted the Russian initiative for holding a new round of talks to be attended by different influential countries.
Saudi Arabia interested in Iran's participation in new coalition
The Saudi Foreign Minister has said that his country along with the Persian Gulf Arab states was assessing sending forces to Syria. Adel al-Jubeir noted that Saudi Arabia and the Arab countries were mulling dispatching Special Forces in line with the US anti-ISIS efforts. Al-Jubeir asserted that talks were underway between the participant countries of the coalition like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE to consider sending Special Forces to the Syrian territories. He added that the consultations were going on yet, and that the force deployment was not unlikely. Considering the battlefield facts and the Riyadh-led coalition's failures in Yemen, the analysts have described the new Riyadh's military coalition as nominal and that it was mostly developed for propagandistic purposes. The Independent newspaper in its headline called the Saudi announcement of the Sunni coalition as a "symbolic not substantial" move. Meanwhile, the informed news outlets reported that Saudi Arabia has told Lebanon that Riyadh was not against Iran's joining the Islamic military coalition. A prominent member of Lebanese Al-Mustaqbal movement's parliamentary fraction has said that Riyadh sent a message notifying that it did not oppose Iran's presence in its new anti-terror alliance dubbed Islamic military coalition. The Lebanese Member of Parliament said that Saudi Arabia told Tammam Salam, Lebanon's Prime Minister, that the kingdom would not come against the Islamic Republic taking part in the Islamic military alliance.
