No place for Assad in Syria’s future, says US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
President Bashar al-Assad should not be part of Syria’s future, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday, as G7 allies rejected a call for new sanctions on Damascus and its key ally Moscow.
Washington has stepped up the pressure on Russia to rein in Assad after a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held Syrian town that killed at least 87 civilians and triggered retaliatory US missile strikes on a Syrian air base.
As G7 foreign ministers urged a diplomatic push to end the six-year conflict and create a lasting peace for a unified Syria, Tillerson said: “Our hope is Bashar al-Assad will not be part of that future.”
To be clear, our military action was a direct response to the Assad regime’s barbarism. The United States’ priority in Syria and Iraq remains the defeat of ISIS
With a growing gulf between the US and Assad’s main ally Russia, the G7 ministers threw their support behind Tillerson as he headed for vital talks on the Syrian conflict in Moscow.
“To be clear, our military action was a direct response to the Assad regime’s barbarism,” Tillerson said at the G7 meeting in Italy.
“The United States’ priority in Syria and Iraq remains the defeat of ISIS,” he added, referring to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group.
Moscow said it was hoping to avoid confrontation and engage in “constructive cooperation” with Washington, as Tillerson headed to the Russian capital on the first visit by a senior member of President Donald Trump’s administration.
