US reaffirms rejection of rapprochement with Syria after Moscow’s meeting
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Barbara A. Leaf, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, said on Wednesday during a meeting with a delegation of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) that the US policy towards Syria “has not changed.”
On Tuesday the SNC delegation, headed by Bader Jamous, President of the Syrian Negotiation Commission, arrived in Washington DC on the back of the recent diplomatic movement by the Syrian opposition in Turkey against the accelerating Arab outreach to Syria.
The delegation included Salem al-Meslet, president of the SNC, Ibrahim Bro as the representative of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS) of the Negotiation Committee, and Fadwa Ajaili as the representative of independent, according to the Negotiation Committee’s Facebook account.
In a tweet, the Bureau of Near East Asian Affairs in the Department of State said after the meeting “no normalization with the Assad regime in the absence of enduring political change and strong support for UNSCR 2254 including the role of the Syrian opposition.”
On Tuesday, Russian capital Moscow hosted a four-way meeting took place between Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Syrian Defense Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashitani, as well as the intelligence chiefs of all four countries.
The SNC stressed during the meeting in Washington that the political solution should be under the UN resolutions, especially the Resolution No. 2254.
The delegation confirmed that the absence of “the political solution and the failure to reach the transitional period will increase the Syrian people’s suffering.”