February will mark the end of IS in Syria: French President

Despite the collapse of the self-declared caliphate in 2014, the fate of the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, remains unknown.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his belief that the military campaign against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria will be drawing to an end soon into the new year.

In a broadcast interview with France 2 network on Sunday, Macron said that by “mid-to-late February,” the anti-IS coalition will have won the war in Syria, recalling that on Dec. 9, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had announced the end of the war and the victory over the jihadist group.

As the fight against IS proves successful on the ground, Macron explained that the focus would now shift to peace talks involving all parties in the protracted Syrian civil war, including regime leader, President Bashar al-Assad.

“We have to talk to everybody. We have to talk to Bashar al-Assad and his representatives," Macron said. "Afterward, he must answer for his crimes before his people, before international justice."

Despite the collapse of the self-declared caliphate in 2014, the fate of the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, remains unknown.  

Only a number of towns in Syria remain under the control of the jihadists, as regime forces backed by Russia and Iran, and the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continue to clear areas around the Euphrates.

The French president also promised “initiatives” early next year, and despite being a leading backer of the Syrian opposition, has declared that the departure of Assad was not a pre-condition for talks.

However, the defeat of IS in Syria and the lack of a political process in place for the post-IS transition has worried some who believe Russia and Iran are exploiting the US-led military success against the jihadist group to consolidate influence.

“The Iranians, Hezbollah, the Alawite forces in Syria,”  Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and NSA (National Security Agency) told Kurdistan 24, “supported by the Russian Air Force, have actually been, in a race car sense of the word, drafting on the American success in Raqqa and the Euphrates valley.”

Both Moscow and Tehran support the regime in Damascus, with both powers leveraging the instability to secure a foothold on the Mediterranean.

UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, recently warned of the “disintegration of Syria” should the peace talks in Geneva continue to be delayed. De Mistura blamed Damascus for the failure of the talks, saying, “I did not see the [Syrian] government really looking to find a way to have a dialogue.”

The UN envoy, however, did not address Moscow’s alternative forum—discussions held in Astana, Kazakhstan, where Russian President, Vladimir Putin, established a different group of opposition representatives that could supplant the Saudi-backed Syrian opposition that participates in the Geneva negotiations.