US emboldened again over toppling Assad in Syria: Analyst

Recent US warning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shows that Washington seems “to be emboldened once again” over regime change in the war-torn country, says a political analyst Eric Draitser.

Draitser, founder of Stopimperialism.com, made the remarks Friday when asked about comments by US Secretary of State John Kerry against al-Assad.

Kerry has warned the Syrian president of the consequences if he does not accept a political transition in the next few months.

“The target date for the transition is 1st of August,” Kerry told reporters at the State Department on Tuesday.

“So we're now coming up to May. So either something happens in these next few months, or they are asking for a very different track,” he added.

His remarks are “against the backdrop of escalating violence in Aleppo, obviously we have a very hot propaganda war as well as a very hot war on the ground being waged, there is a propaganda war, of course particularly, in the Western and non-Western media as to who is responsible for this or that bombing, who is responsible for bombing this hospital or that hospital, there is a lot of mixed messaging,” Draitser told Press TV.

“They seem to be emboldened once again to really talk about regime change when Russia was actively engaged in a far more direct capacity than they are now,” he said.

“Since they announced the drawdown of Russian forces, the US is much more reticent to be as dogmatically committed to this question of regime change under the guise of transition,”  he noted.

“The United States has reinvigorated its commitment not only to regime change but to spreading chaos and conflict in Syria and in the region broadly,” Draitser added.

Another thing about the US top diplomat’s remarks “is the language that Kerry is using, he says that not only Assad must accept transition by August 1st or there will be consequences but he goes so far as to suggest the absurdity of Assad trying to quote unquote carve out territory in Syria,” he said.

“It is, in fact, the United States and its various proxies that have also attempted to carve out their own states within Syria,” he added.

US officials have frequently warned of consequences if Assad refused to step down as part of a broader peace agreement to end the five-year conflict.

Syria has been gripped by a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura has estimated that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Damascus accuses the US and some of its regional allies, in particular Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, of conducting a proxy war against Syria.

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