US confirms commitment to Geneva talks on Syria

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) - “We remain committed to the Geneva process,” State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters on Tuesday.

“We believe that the future of Syria will not include Bashar al-Assad, but that is ultimately up to the Syrian people and the Syrian voters to decide,” she said.

Nauert’s affirmation that there has been no change in US policy on Syria—which essentially continues that of the Obama administration—came in response to a question from Kurdistan 24 about a report in The New Yorker by journalist Robin Wright, who has long covered the Middle East.

Wright claimed that the Trump administration had now reconciled itself to Assad remaining in office, at least until the next scheduled Syrian elections in 2021.

That decision, she wrote, “reflects the administration’s limited options, the military reality on the ground, and the success of Syria’s Russian, Iranian, and Hezbollah allies in propping up the beleaguered Assad regime.”

Nauert, however, characterized that as “off the mark.”

Nonetheless, the Geneva talks face significant problems. Syria’s representative, its UN ambassador, Bashar al-Jafaari, initially attended the last round of negotiations that began on Nov. 28. However, he left after two days, objecting to the opposition parties’ refusal that Assad play any role in the process of political transition.

On Sunday, Jafaari returned to Geneva to meet the UN Special Envoy Stephan de Mistura, who is overseeing the talks, but Western diplomats, nonetheless, “expressed skepticism” about Syria’s sincerity, Reuters reported.

The US, the UN, and the Syrian opposition are all relying on Moscow to pressure Damascus to participate in the negotiations.

“We expect that Russia will continue to try to bring the [Syrian] regime to the table,” Nauert said on Tuesday.

A member of the Syrian opposition delegation similarly told The Guardian, “We need the Russians to weigh in on the Syrian government, and they have the means to do so.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Assad on Monday in a tour that also included Egypt and Turkey.

In the press conferences in Egypt and Turkey that followed his meetings, Putin explained that the future of Syria had been on the agenda of his discussions in all three countries.

However, the Russian leader made no mention of the Geneva talks.

The Geneva talks started in 2012, a year after Syria’s civil war began. They have been held intermittently over the past five years, but have made little progress.

Asked to suggest a timeframe for reaching an agreement, Nauert demurred, claiming it was too early. Organizations backed by the US and other coalition members are still “removing the rubble.”

“We’re still involved in the demining process,” she said. “We’re just not there, at the electoral process” at this point.

As Wright noted, however, the Syrian regime now “now controls the majority” of Syrian territory and “the majority of the Syrian population.”

Editing by Nadia Riva