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Syrian army needed in fight against Daesh: Analyst

Thursday, 19 November 2015 10:26 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 19 November 2015 10:26 AM ]

Syrian army tanks enter a village near the Kweyris military air base, in the east of the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, on November 15, 2015 after they took control of the surrounding villages from Daesh terrorists. (Photo by AFP)

Press TV has interviewed James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst in Washington, about Russia calling on world powers to unite in their fight against terrorism without setting any preconditions on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It does not sound like countries like the US have learned anything from the Paris attacks if they are still using the obsession of Assad’s removal as a basis to continue forward?

Jatras: In politics, hardly anybody ever admits he was wrong about something and I do not expect the leaders of the western countries, including the United States, to do that regarding Assad. Hopefully, however, they will simply stop talking about that or making it a precondition, and move on with the kind of cooperation we need to see.

It was encouraging for example that General Sir David Richards, the former Chief of Staff of the Defense Forces in Britain has called upon Prime Minister Cameron to admit we need to work with Assad, work with the Russians, and that there has to be a force on the ground and that must be the Syrian army, if the air power being used against Daesh is going to have any kind of effect.

So I think there is some evolution in Western attitudes, but simply dropping a political position; If they frozen their feet in concrete for several years, it will be extremely difficult.

Press TV: And talk about dropping bombs is not going to solve the problem, even though there might be a push for some type of coordination between the US and Russia and UK and Russia, so it is going to require on the ground for the Syrian army to be active. Will the US agree to that type of coordination?

Jatras: It is unclear at this point and as I said I think it is an evolution that is taking place. I think there is some movement in that direction and of course besides the military side of that, having boots on the ground but not American boots, not European boots or Russian boots, it is necessary to have a political process which means the government of Damascus with any genuinely Syrian, genuinely moderate political elements not ISIS (Daesh), not al-Nusra, not the Army of Conquest, not these primarily foreign forces supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the [Persian] Gulf states.

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