The Washington Times
With international peace talks on Syria seeming to stall Tuesday, the Obama administration’s former ambassador to Riyadh predicted Syrian President Bashar Assad will remain in power as long as Washington and its allies fail to challenge him militarily.
“Without greater military pressure on the Syrian government, it will not negotiate a compromise political settlement,” said Robert S. Ford, who told a congressional hearing that the Obama administration’s unclear policies toward the war have lost the trust of Syria’s opposition forces.
“The United States lacks leverage with the armed opposition because it — and its regional backers — view us as inconsistent at best,” Mr. Ford told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
The former ambassador also stressed that Russia’s military intervention on behalf of the Assad regime has dimmed the prospects for a settlement to end the Syrian war.
The Obama administration has long pushed for a “political transition” that would remove Mr. Assad from power, arguing there can be no lasting peace if he stays on. But talks have stalled since the breakdown last month of a partial cease-fire that the U.S. and Russia had negotiated.
Mr. Ford’s comments on Tuesday came as foreign ministers from several powers involved in Syria’s war gathered in Vienna to discuss the prospects of restoring the cease-fire and breathing life into the elusive push toward a political transition.