WASHINGTON: The US State Department said on Monday that Washington did not want Syrian President Bashar al Assad to participate in any negotiation on his country’s future.

“There is need for the representatives of the regime to be a part of that process, it would not be, never be, and (US) Secretary (of State John) Kerry did not imply that it would be Assad himself,” said the department’s spokesperson Jen Psaki.

Read: US will have to negotiate with Assad, says Kerry

“Somebody who has killed tens of thousands of his own people, does not have the legitimacy” to represent them in any talks, she said.

On Sunday Secretary Kerry indicated that he would be willing to talk with President Assad to end violence in the embattled state.

In an interview with CBS News, Secretary Kerry also said that the United States was pushing for President Assad to seriously discuss a transition strategy to quell the four-year civil war.

But President Assad flatly dismissed the suggestion that he should take part in talks on a political transition. Soon after Mr Kerry’s interview, President Assad’s office issued a statement, saying, “Declarations from outside do not concern us.”

Yet, the interview caused an alarm among America’s Middle Eastern and European allies.

The Gulf states, Turkey and France issued statements, insisting that President Assad could not be part of a negotiated solution to the crisis. Britain also has a position similar, although it did not issue a statement In Washington, another State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said later the secretary was not specifically referring to Mr Assad. She reiterated that Washington would never negotiate with the Syrian leader.

“By necessity, there has always been a need for representatives of the Assad regime to be a part of this process. It has never been and would not be Mr Assad who would negotiate – and the Secretary was not saying,” she said.

At Monday’s news briefing, the department’s senior spokesperson Ms Psaki said the US administration was “guided by what the Syrian opposition has been saying” on this issue. The opposition, she explained, was willing to sit on the table with the representatives of the Syrian regime but not with Mr Assad himself.

The United States would support any political process that would bring an end to the sufferings of the Syrian people, she said.

Ms Psaki also said that the United States had held no direct talks with the Syrian regime, although it had discussed this issue with the Russians, knowing that “they would engage with the Syrians”.

Asked when did the US adopt a position that it could not talk to President Assad, Ms Psaki said: “This has consistently been our view.”

She said she would not speculate on a hypothetical question whether the United States would talk to President Assad if the Syrian opposition agreed to do so.

“Negotiations between the opposition and the regime is the main component,” she said. “We want to play supportive role, a positive role.

Published in Dawn March 17th , 2015

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