Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi
Some new developments are expected to happen on the Syrian crisis which will be clear once a nuclear deal with Iran is reached by the end of this month.
The statement of US Secretary of State John Kerry that Washington may find itself ‘compelled’ to negotiate with Bashar Al Assad is a turning point in this regard.
Kerry said that the Geneva-1 Conference decisions are a suitable framework to find a solution to the Syrian crisis.
Interestingly, this is the official stand of Russia too, the main ally of the Syrian regime.
This change has been explained by the CIA Director John Brennan who emphasised that Washington and its allies are concerned about the disintegration of Syria and its eventual fall into the hands of armed terrorist groups.
The White House later underplayed the significance of Kerry’s comments and said Assad will never be part of peace negotiations.
On the other hand, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Dawood Oglo said, “if you sit with Assad and shake hands with him, it will not be erased from the human conscience throughout history because there is no difference between a handshake with Al Assad and with Hitler and Slobodan Miloševic.”
Emanuel Valls, French premier, also expressed disappointment with Kerry’s statement, saying “there will be no peace if Assad remained in power, and Kerry knows that very well”.
So, have we entered a new road on Syria? US is directly involved in the conflict and even gave military training to the opposition, but now it is calling for negotiations with Damascus!
Ironically, some Western states do not consider Assad a war criminal, a dictator who is responsible for destruction and deaths of hundreds of thousands, and displacement of millions of people. Assad has released ISIS terrorists from prisons to damage the image of the peaceful revolution. It’s sad to see the international community’s apathy towards Syrian civil war after the equations have changed. Earlier, Assad’s crimes topped global concerns and dominated headlines, and there were calls for his ouster, but after the horrible crimes of ISIS, the world’s attention has shifted to destroying ISIS.
The real victims of this conflict are Syrian people who are caught between the IS and Assad. Both do not differentiate between civilians and non-civilians while throwing bombs at areas which are already under siege.
So what is the difference between Hitler and Assad? Both Assad and ISIS are two faces of the same coin.
The Peninsula
