WASHINGTON — Syrian President Bashar Assad, unpopular at home, suddenly appears to have many fans in the U.S.
Assad, who has killed thousands in his brutal four-year fight against protesters and internationally backed rebels opposing his rule, is receiving better press in the U.S. than he has in years, prompting concern among some observers of Syria’s conflict — including important American allies and lawmakers — that the Obama administration is preparing to soften its demand that he relinquish power because it sees him as helpful in its fight against the Islamic State group.
Officials at the White House and State Department deny such a change in policy. They say President Barack Obama and his team continue to believe that Assad must go through political negotiations with the internationally recognized Syrian opposition.
Yet suggestions of a policy shift keep coming, playing into Assad’s purposes as they threaten to divide the international community. They are particularly distressing, said one Western diplomat from a country involved in the fight against ISIS, because U.S. partners have not heard anything certain on how the U.S. sees Assad’s removal being accomplished.
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Assad’s opponents said they see that offer as deceitful at best and, at worst, taboo.
“Assad is neither willing nor able to deliver on any of the U.S. objectives in Syria which the administration has articulated to date,” Randa Slim, an Arab democracy expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington, told The Huffington Post in a Monday email, pointing to his regime’s military and economic weakness as well as its severe lack of legitimacy.
The Western diplomat said he was still unsure if the U.S. was going to shift its position on Assad. But he warned of the consequences of such a move.
“We can’t see a future with Bashar, who is responsible for the deaths of 200,000 of his people,” the diplomat said. “It’s just not an option. … [For the U.S. to support that] would have a huge impact. A lot of countries in Europe or in the Middle East are not there.”
