The fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is in the hands of Russia, as the Trump administration's priority in the war-torn country is limited to defeating the Islamic State, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told U.N. Secretary General António Guterres during a private State Department meeting last week, Foreign Policy reported on Monday.
The remarks, attributed by Foreign Policy to three diplomatic sources, is yet another apparent reversal in the administration's stance on the issue. At the beginning of the Trump presidency, Tillerson said that Assad's future "will be decided by the Syrian people," but that policy was apparently reversed when the secretary of state said in April that "steps are under way" for an international effort to get rid of Assad after his regime killed dozens of civilians with a chemical weapons attack.
Tillerson's latest remarks come at a key moment, just before President Donald Trump's first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.
The apparent willingness to allow Moscow to take the lead in Assad's future raises doubts about American intentions and appears to indicate that "U.S. military action against Assad's forces in recent months is intended to achieve only limited tactical goals — deterring future chemical weapons attacks and protecting U.S. backed-forces fighting the Islamic State in Syria — not weakening the Assad government or strengthening the opposition's negotiating leverage," according to Foreign Policy.
A State Department official refused to comment on Tillerson's talks with Guterres, but insisted that the U.S. supports a "credible political process that can resolve the question of Syria's future. Ultimately, this process, in our view, will lead to a resolution of Assad's status."
Former State Department special adviser for transition in Syria Fred Hof called the Trump administration's stance on Russia in Syria "confusing," blaming it on the president's lack of a coherent, overarching national security strategy.
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