President Bashar al-Assad’s key backers declared victory on Sunday night after Western leaders who had previously backed Syrian rebels, including David Cameron, said they accepted he would stay in power, at least for the time being.
Speaking to reporters on his way to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Prime Minister said Mr Assad had no “long-term” future but suggested he could remain in place during a transition period.
Germany and America have also talked up the possibility of keeping him in place in a deal to end the four-year Syrian civil war and help defeat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary-general, added that he was ready to discuss Syria with Russia, whose decision this month to pour in weapons and troops shored Mr Assad just as his defenses were weakening. Mr Stoltenberg said there was now need for “co-ordination” with Russia to avoid “incident or accident” as US-led forces fought Isil in the country.
The leaders of Russia and Iran, which has also sent thousands of loyal militias to fight on Mr Assad’s behalf, leaped on the comments.
"I think today everyone has accepted that president Assad must remain so that we can combat the terrorists," president Hassan Rouhani of Iran told CNN in an interview.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia gloated over the failure of the American programme to train anti-Assad rebels to fight Isil on the ground . “The initial aim was to train between 5,000 and 6,000 fighters, and then 12,000 more,” he said in a separate interview .
“It turns out that only 60 of these fighters have been properly trained, and as few as 4 or 5 people actually carry weapons, while the rest of them have deserted with the American weapons to join ISIS [Isil].”
In fact, the men alleged to have defected went over to Jabhat al-Nusra, an affiliate of al-Qaeda that is in a coalition of rebel groups fighting both Isil and the regime e. Mr Cameron insisted he still believed Mr Assad should eventually be tried for war crimes against the Syrian people.
He also said that Russia’s increased military presence in Syria would not affect plans to join air strikes on Isil in the country, though he repeated that backing from MPs would be needed. Mr Cameron said: “Assad can’t be part of Syria’s future. He’s butchered his own people, he has helped create this conflict and this migration crisis, he’s one of the great recruiting sergeants for Isil.
"He can’t play a part in the future for Syria and that position hasn’t changed.”
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, met Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, to discuss the Syrian situation, a day before Mr Putin is due to meet President Barack Obama. Meanwhile, France carried out its first air strikes against Isil inside Syria.
Francois Hollande, the French president, said the strikes had “completely destroyed” an Isil training camp near the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzour.
He said six war-planes took part in the operation, which was aimed at “preventing terrorist attacks”.
This article was written by Richard Spencer Middle East Editor and Ben Riley-Smith in New York from The Daily Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
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