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“Bashar al Assad has no place in a future Syria”

By Nehad Ismail

The U.S. recognizes that defeating the Syrian regime and the toppling of Bashar al Assad is an important Saudi strategic objective to protect its regional interests.

The recent spat between the two allies over Syria is still reverberating and has not died down yet.In a joint article in the Washington Post on October 26th Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, wrote:

“What’s worse, the administration’s failure on Syria is part of a broader collapse of U.S.

credibility in the Middle East. As recent reports make clear, Israel and our Gulf Arab partners are losing all confidence in the competence, capability and wisdom of the administration’s diplomacy in the region. America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, in particular, is deteriorating rapidly, to the detriment of U.S. national security interests.” Their views that Obama is failing the Middle East, and the U.S. interests are shared by many political observers in the Middle East.

The Times of London reported on October 28th that:

Dick Cheney has accused President Obama of turning his back on the Middle East.
“As Washington signalled again its intention to pare back US involvement in the region, the former VicePresident attacked Mr Obama's foreign policy blueprint and his contentious decision to pursue a diplomatic path with Tehran over its nuclear programme.”

The Saudis feel that they were being ignored and even betrayed by Obama.

On October 21st that Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief told European diplomats that he plans to scale back cooperation with the U.S. Prince Bandar Bin Sultan al-Saud's move increased tensions and widened the rift between the U.S. and one of its closest Arab allies over Syria, Iran and Egypt policies. This came three days after Saudi Arabia's surprise decision on Friday 18th October to turn down a 2 year seat onthe United Nations Security Council.

According to news reports US Secretary of State John Kerry has paid a visit to Saudi Arabia on Sunday November 3rdto patch up the deteriorating relations and to placate the escalating tensions. John Kerry who is pressing a peace conference in Geneva, said in Cairo on last week that Washington and its allies may differ over “tactics” on the Syrian conflict but they shared the goal of a handover of power. He also said without naming Saudi Arabia specifically:“There are some countries ... that wanted the United States to do one thing in respect to Syria and we have done something else,”

He also insisted: “Those differences on individual tactics on policy do not mean a difference on (the) fundamental goal of the policy. He is also visiting Saudi Arabia and it is my view that the Saudis have a list of questions for John Kerry and President Obama which may include any or all of the following:

-Is it in the U.S. interest that Syria ends up being controlled by Iran?
-Is it in the U.S interest that Moscow and Tehran call the shots in the region and the US stays isolated on the side-lines?

-Why the Obama imposed red-lines had been crossed by the Syrian regime and nothing had been done about it?

- Is it OK for the Syrian regime to carry on killing Syrians by conventional weapons? Less than 2000 Syrians were killed by chemical weapons and more than 115,000 were killed by conventional weapons?

-Is the UN Security Council resolution 2118 to dismantle the chemical weapons a green light for the regime to kill Syrians by non-chemical weapons?

-Why has the Obama administration failed to honour its pledge to arm the Free Syrian Army with the right weapons?

-In August 2011 President Obama demanded that Bashar al Assad must step down. Why nothing has been done to force the butcher of Damascus to step down?

However there is speculation that Kerry might succeed in persuading the Saudis to take up their seat at the UN Security Council, but I don’t think the USA is in a position to change its policies in the foreseeable future. The most significant development is that the both sides have finally agreed that the transitional stage must not include Bashar al Assad. Future Syria has no place for Bashar al Assad.

NehadIsmail
UK based writer/broadcaster and commentator on Middle East issues