US envoy: No military solution to Syria

After a meeting with UN and Arab League Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Geneva and their Russian counterparts in Moscow, Rubinstein was in İstanbul on Wednesday before heading to Ankara for consultations about what he called "the urgent situation that no one is pleased about" in Syria. In a roundtable discussion with a small group of journalists in Turkey's business capital, Rubinstein talked about the US's vision for the crisis-laden country's future. He emphasized that that future does not include Syrian President Bashar-al Assad, but the way to make it a reality is through a peaceful transfer of power. "We happen to believe that in fact there is no military solution to this conflict to this day," he said. However, he acknowledged that "various forms of pressure must be used against the Assad regime" to "engender the conditions needed for a political solution," including those that are "on the ground" rather than "political and economic" means. "Those are all necessary tools that the US and several other countries are availing themselves of to support our friends and colleagues in the moderate Syrian opposition to put that pressure on the regime so that that the regime and/or those who back it feel the need to get involved in a political process that leads to a political transition," he said. Rubinstein's visit to Turkey comes at a critical time, when there are mounting discussions on an alleged plan by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to intervene in Syria militarily ahead of the June 7 parliamentary election. According to the allegations, which mostly appear on social media but were recently voiced by main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Gürsel Tekin, Erdoğan aims to consolidate electoral support for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), his former political party, by unifying conservative Turkish voters around a cause of national security to reverse an otherwise unstoppable decline in public backing of the party. Erdoğan has not personally responded to the allegations, but Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has denied them. Rubinstein's visit also comes at a time of increased international coverage of the Syrian crisis regarding an alleged new alliance between Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. According to recent reports from the Associated Press, the BBC and Haaretz among others, that trilateral coalition has started providing advanced weaponry to a range of Syrian opposition groups, which subsequently captured the city of Idlib in northwest Syria from Assad's forces in late March. An "Army of Conquest" comprising forces from a number of Syrian opposition groups -- including the al-Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda -- is now threatening Assad's stronghold of Latakia, an Alawite-majority city by the Mediterranean Sea, after its victory in the battle for Idlib. Asked if Washington is concerned about the gains of al-Nusra on the battlefield in Syria, Rubinstein repeated the US official position concerning the combatant group. "It is a designated terrorist organization and a declared enemy of the US. We will continue to deal with it accordingly," he said. The American career diplomat's next stop after Ankara is Riyadh. Source: Today's Zaman