Kerry:
“We’re not going to be fooled by Assad”
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| The Syrian National Coalition's logo |
“Chances
are the Syrian National Coalition will decide to join the Geneva-2 peace
talks,” proclaims
a front-page headline in the authoritative Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat this morning.
Pan-Arab al-Hayat, another Saudi-owned daily, talks of an American-Russian understanding
that the priority at Geneva-2 would be “to set up a
transitional governing body that would exercise full executive powers and
supervise the armed forces and security services.”
U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry hinted at this
yesterday at his Joint Press Availability at the State Department’s Ben
Franklin Room with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Mexican Foreign
Secretary Jose Antonio Meade.
SPOKESPERSON JEN PSAKI: The first
question will be from Michael Gordon of The
New York Times.
QUESTION: A question for
Secretary Kerry. Sir, after you became Secretary of State, you made the point
repeatedly that it was important to change Bashar al-Assad’s calculation in
order to achieve a political solution at Geneva II. Now almost a year later,
it’s clear that the Assad regime believes its position is stronger than ever.
In his letter to the United Nations, the Syria foreign minister, who will be
leading the delegation to Geneva-2, suggests that the purpose of going to
Geneva is to fight terrorism, not discuss a political transition. In fact, he
says some points in the invitation the Syrian Government received from the UN
are “in conflict with the legal and political position of the state of Syria.”
Sir, my question is: How can you
expect to make progress toward a political transition at Geneva-2 if the Assad
government does not even accept the purpose of the conference, which is what
its own letter suggests. Have you been in contact with the Syrian Government
over the past 24 hours to obtain an assurance that it accepts the purpose of
the meeting? And doesn’t the Syrian foreign minister’s letter mean that more
pressure needs to be brought to bear on the Assad government in order to make
political headway? Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much, Michael. Yesterday I addressed directly
the revisionism of the Syrian regime in its effort to try to divert the
purpose, which will not be successful. More than 30 nations are going to
assemble, all of whom, thus far, and if there are more, will be and must be
committed to the Geneva-1 communiqué. Now, you were with me in Paris the other
day when Foreign Minister Lavrov stood up and reiterated that the purpose of
this conference is the implementation of the Geneva-1 communiqué.
Nobody would
have believed that Assad would have given up his chemical weapons. But he did.
And the reason he did is that his patrons came to understand that he had to.
And I believe, as we begin to get to Geneva, and begin to get into this
process, that it will become clear that there is no political solution
whatsoever if Assad is not discussing a transition and if he thinks he’s going
to be part of that future. It’s not going to happen. The people who are the
opponents of this regime will never, ever stop. There will be a low-grade
insurgency at least, and worse, potentially even a civil war if it continues,
because they will not stop.
Now we also are
not out of options with respect to what we may be able to do to increase the
pressure and further change the calculation. And I think we’ve made that clear
to the Russian foreign minister and others, and nor are other players short of
an ability to be able to have an impact here.
So I think they
can bluster, they can protest, they can put out distortions. The bottom line
is: We are going to Geneva to implement Geneva-1. And if Assad doesn’t do that,
he will invite greater response in various ways from various people over a
period of time. So I’m not particularly surprised that he is trying to divert
this. He’s been doing this for months, trying to make himself the protector of
Syria against extremists, when he himself has even been funding some of those
extremists – even purposely ceding some territory to them in order to make them
more of a problem so he can make the argument that he is somehow the protector
against them. Nobody is going to be fooled. We’re not going to be fooled by
this process.
So Foreign
Minister Lavrov has stated: They are supporting the Geneva-1 communiqué and the
government has to come and negotiate around the communiqué. And since Russia is
one of the primary benefactors of the Assad regime, we believe the Russians
have a high stake in helping to make certain that Assad understands exactly what
the parameters of this negotiation are.
