Feltman: Washington failed in Syria

Former US official Geoffrey Feltman said US policy in Syria for the administrations of former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama has not achieved any tangible results for Washington.

Speaking to the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Feltman called for testing a new approach based on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad taking “concrete, specific and transparent steps in political reform” in exchange for Washington easing sanctions on Damascus.

Feltman noted that Assad today is stronger than before with regard to military control on the ground.

He believed that the only success of US policy toward Syria is “the geographical defeat of ISIS in Syria and Iraq,” according to Feltman.

“The threat to the survival of the Assad government is no longer military, but due to the decline in the economic situation,” Feltman added. “The social, economic and structural challenges will create many problems that Damascus cannot face.”

The former US official noted that “Iran, Hezbollah and Russia came to save the regime … Will they come to save Damascus economically? I don’t think so,” according to Feltman.

Regarding the appointment of the new US envoy to the Syrian dossier, Feltman denied the rumors, saying: “I think naming an envoy to Syria is not a priority for the Biden administration at present.”

Former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford in a “Foreignaffairs” article advised the government of the new president, Joe Biden, to leave Syria. “Washington’s efforts are doomed to fail,” he said.

Ford added that “Syria has never been considered a major national security issue,” noting that US interests have always been limited to the need to “prevent the conflict from threatening other US interests in the region.”

According to the newspaper, Trump had repeatedly promised to pull the United States out of the Syrian crisis, but Ford emphasized that “America’s long-term efforts to rebuild and stabilize post-conflict societies were misguided and doomed to failure.”