WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (KUNA) -- In a press conference at the White House, President of the United States Barack Obama said that the war in Syria should not turn into a battle ground for a US-Russian dispute.
"We're not going to make Syria into a proxy war between the United States and Russia. That would be a bad strategy on our part. This is a battle between Russia, Iran, and Assad against the overwhelming majority of the Syrian people. Our battle is with ISIL, and our battle is with the entire international community to resolve the conflict in a way that can end the bloodshed and end the refugee crisis," Obama told reporters.
"I said to Mr. Putin that I'd be prepared to work with him if he is willing to broker with his partners, Mr. Assad and Iran, a political transition -- we can bring the rest of the world community to a brokered solution -- but that a military solution alone, an attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and try to pacify the population is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire.
"And it won't work. And they will be there for a while if they don't take a different course," Obama said.
"I also said to him that it is true that the United States and Russia and the entire world have a common interest in destroying ISIL. But what was very clear -- and regardless of what Mr. Putin said -- was that he doesn't distinguish between ISIL and a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr. Assad go. From their perspective, they're all terrorists. And that's a recipe for disaster, and it's one that I reject." He continued saying that the problem here was Assad and the brutality that he has inflicted on the Syrian people, and that it has to stop.
"In order for it to stop, we're prepared to work with all the parties concerned. But we are not going to cooperate with a Russian campaign to simply try to destroy anybody who is disgusted and fed up with Mr. Assad's behavior." "The training-and-equip program was a specific initiative by the Defense Department to see if we could get some of that moderate opposition to focus attention on ISIL in the eastern portion of the country. And I'm the first one to acknowledge it has not worked", he said.
"The notion that he (Putin) put forward a plan and that somehow the international community sees that as viable because there is a vacuum there -- I didn't see, after he made that speech in the United Nations, suddenly the 60-nation coalition that we have start lining up behind him. Iran and Assad make up Mr. Putin's coalition at the moment. The rest of the world makes up ours. So I don't think people are fooled by the current strategy," he concluded. (end) yt.gta