US was wrong to say Assad must go: Kissinger

Nov 15, 2014, Press TV

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has admitted that Washington’s scenario to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been a mistake.

“It was wrong to say from the beginning that Assad must go — although it is a desirable ultimate goal,” Kissinger said in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel.

“I don’t agree that the Syrian crisis can be interpreted as a ruthless dictator against a helpless population and that the population will become democratic if you remove the dictator,” he pointed out.

The veteran American politician noted that from the outset of the Syrian crisis the US “should have had a dialogue with Russia and asked what outcome we want in Syria, and formulate a strategy together.”

Since late September, the US and some of its Arab allies — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates — have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

Some analysts have maintained that the United States and its allies have seized on the ISIL threat to target the Syrian government.

Washington and its allies have long been accused of funding and arming the militancy in Syria since the outbreak of the crisis in the Arab country in early 2011.

On October 14, US President Barack Obama called for more support for militants fighting the Syrian government and asked the US-led coalition to be prepared for a long military campaign against the ISIL terrorist organization in Iraq and Syria.

Obama has authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and more recently the Pentagon to arm and equip what he called moderate Syrian militants out of bases in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey ostensibly to battle ISIL terrorists.

Many of these so-called moderate militants, however, have pledged allegiance to the ISIL group that has been committing heinous crimes in Iraq and Syria.

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