HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah participating in a meeting to discuss a political settlement to the Syrian crisis in Vienna yesterday.
AFP/Vienna
The United States yesterday announced its first sustained deployment of ground troops to Syria to help the anti-militant fight, as major powers remained divided over President Bashar al-Assad’s fate.
The decision to send a small special forces team marks an escalation in Washington’s efforts to defeat the Islamic State (IS) group, which has seized Syrian territory despite more than a year of US-led air strikes.
The White House rejected accusations that President Barack Obama was backtracking on a promise not to put boots on the ground.
“Our strategy in Syria hasn’t changed,” spokesman Josh Earnest said. “These forces do not have a combat mission.”
Officials said an initial deployment of “fewer than 50” special forces would be sent to northern Syria - parts of which are controlled by US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces fighting IS.
Washington will also deploy A-10 ground-attack planes and F-15 tactical fighter jets to the Incirlik base in southern Turkey, as part of the ramped up effort.
The announcement came as key backers of Syria’s rival sides meeting in Vienna sought to narrow their divisions over a conflict that has claimed a quarter of a million lives and triggered an exodus of refugees to Europe.
Top diplomats from 17 countries, as well as the United Nations and the European Union, gathered for the talks bringing together all the main outside players in the four-year-old crisis for the first time.
The Syrian regime and the opposition were not represented.
Regime allies Russia - which has waged a month of intense air strikes against Syrian rebels - and Iran are resisting pressure to force Assad from power.
“Some countries have tried to include a timetable for the departure of Bashar al-Assad in the statement (issued after the meeting) but with the efforts made, this part has been removed,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian claimed in Vienna, quoted by Iranian news agencies.
US Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged that he had “agreed to disagree” with his Iranian and Russian counterparts on the fate of the Syrian leader.
“The United States’ position is that there is no way that President Assad can unite and govern Syria. And we believe that Syrians deserve a different choice,” he said.
“But we can’t allow that difference to get in the way of the possibility that diplomacy can end the killing and find the solution.”
He said the participants had agreed to ask the United Nations to broker a peace deal between the regime and opposition to clear the way for a new constitution and UN-supervised elections.
FM attends meeting
HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah participated in the expanded meeting to discuss a political settlement to the Syrian crisis, on the level of foreign ministers of the countries concerned, which was held in Vienna yesterday.
The meeting was attended by delegations representing Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, the UAE, Jordan, Germany, France, Egypt, Italy, Britain, Iraq, Lebanon, China, Oman as well as the UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura and the high representative of the European Union Federica Mogherini.
Al-Attiyah also participated in a working breakfast on the sidelines of the plenary meeting in Vienna. Delegations from the US, France, Germany, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE and Jordan also attended.
