Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad must leave office or face being turfed out by force, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said Tuesday, rejecting Russia’s bid to build support for its ally.
Jubeir told journalists the military option could be lengthier and more destructive, but the choice is entirely up to Assad and whether he accepts the political roadmap agreed to by key nations in 2012. That deal would have him hand power to an executive council.
“And, sometime between the formation of this council and elections — whether it’s a day or a week or a month, I don’t know — President Assad would sail into the sunset,” he said.
“If Bashar Assad accepts the political process where he transitions out of the country, I think we can get somewhere,” Jubeir said, “but we haven’t seen any indication that he would do this, nor have we seen any indication that his two main supporters, Russia and Iran, are prepared to push him in that direction.
So while we hope that the process will succeed, I believe, given the position of Russia and Iran, our hope is not that great.”
He warned that other countries would step up support for rebels from Syria’s moderate opposition, leaving Assad with no choice but to step down or face what he called the “military option.”
He said the Free Syrian Army and moderate opposition forces are fighting against Assad and receiving support from a number of countries and that “will be intensified.”
And he scorned Iran’s involvement in Russia’s putative alliance, describing Tehran as an “occupying power” in Syria.
“There is no future for Assad in Syria, with all due respect to the Russians or anyone else,” Jubeir told reporters.
He dismissed Russia’s call for a coalition to defend Assad against the Daesh group as a “non-starter.” He said if the Russians were serious about fighting the Daesh extremists, “they could join the existing international coalition.”
“But for them to go out and insert forces into Syria, which is the first time that the Russians have done so in decades, is a big step, and is an indication that their objective may be to prop up the Assad regime, more than it is to fight Daesh,” the Saudi foreign minister said.
US President Barack Obama also said that Assad must go if the Daesh group is to be defeated. “In Syria… defeating ISIL (Daesh) requires, I believe, a new leader,” Obama said.
Jubeir denied European powers are “going soft” and looking to Russia to resolve the problem and said the United States is only talking to Moscow to avoid chance encounters between their forces.
As to Iran, Jubeir said, the only way it can help is to withdraw. “Iran is part of the problem and cannot be part of the solution,” he said.
“It should withdraw its forces from Syria and withdraw the Shiite militias that it inserted into Syria and then it can talk about a diplomatic solution,” he declared.
