UNITED NATIONS — President Obama offered Monday to work with Russia and Iran on a resolution to the four-year Syrian civil war, which has created the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
“The United States is willing to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran,” Obama said. “But we must agree that after so much carnage there cannot be a return to the previous status quo.”
Any solution must not include continued support for “a tyrant” like Syrian PresidentBashar Assad, who Obama said has killed his own people in a war that began with a violent crackdown on peaceful protests.
“When a dictator slaughters tens of thousands of his own people that’s not just a matter of one country’s internal affairs,” Obama said. “There is no room for accommodating an apocalyptic cult like ISIL,” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State militant group that has seized vast expanses of Syria and neighboring Iraq.
U.S. experience in Iraq and Libya has exposed the risk of intervention without a sufficient plan and commitment to find a comprehensive political solution, Obama said on the first day of debate of the 70th U.N. General Assembly. “Military power is necessary, but it is not sufficient to a lasting solution in Syria,” he added. “Diplomacy is needed.”
“Compromise will be required to end the conflict and defeat ISIL and al-Qaeda,” but there must be a process to find a new Syrian leader who represents all of the Syrian people, Obama said.
In sharp contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin later called for a global response to fight Islamic extremism akin to a third World War that should be fought alongside Assad’s government forces.
“We think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to work with the Syrian government and its armed forces,” Putin told the U.N. “No one but the Syrian forces and Kurdish militia is seriously fighting against Islamic state.”
The alternative is to arm terrorists, Putin said.
“This may result in the spread of violent terrorism to many countries, including European countries, and sadly Russia is not an exception,” Putin said, adding that he cannot allow such a threat.
Russia fought a brutal war with Islamic separatists in Chenya during much of the 1990s, where an insurgency continues even today.
Russia and Iran are Assad’s main allies. Obama and Putin planned to meet later in the day to discuss where they share common ground in the Syrian war.
Putin has recently poured weapons into Syria to support the embattled regime of Assad in his struggle against the Islamic State and other rebel groups. Obama wants Assad out and has made a feeble attempt to support other rebels aligned against the Islamic State radicals.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said action to combat extremism in the Middle East should be modeled on the recent Iran nuclear agreement. But he said democratic governance should wait until stability is reached in the region through dialogue cooperation with established central governments.
“And once that’s established, build democratic governance in the Middle East region,” Rouhani said.
Rohani blamed “naïve trans-regional actors” in part for the terrorist “wave of destruction” that has gone beyond the Middle East and the Arab world and reached the United States and Europe. “Without the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and U.S. support for the Zionist regime, the terrorists would not have justification for their actions.”
The United States is leading a coalition of countries fighting Islamic State militants with airstrikes, while backing the Iraqi government and Kurdish militias in Iraq and Syria in their fight against the extremist group. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have argued that Assad’s brutal tactics to cling to power are fueling support for extremists. His forces’ aerial bombardment and shelling have led to mass civilian casualties, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Putin, in an interview Sunday on 60 Minutes, called the U.S. support for Syrian rebels illegal and mocked the Pentagon’s efforts to equip and train them. In recent weeks, many of those rebels have been captured and their equipment seized by other fighters.
Iran also has also been supporting Assad, sending hardware and military advisers. Rouhani has argued that Iran’s approach of empowering Shiite militias against extremist forces has been more successful than U.S. air raids that have pummeled Islamic State targets while the group continues to gain territory.
Iraq, whose U.S.-backed military has struggled to hold ground against the Islamic State, announced Sunday it will begin sharing intelligence on the group with the governments of Syria, Russia and Iran. Iraq’s Shiite-run government is close to Iran’s Shiite regime.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the intelligence is being shared to coordinate efforts against the Islamic State. Kerry said that coordination is needed, but is not yet happening. “I think we have concerns about how we’re going to go forward, but that’s precisely what we’re meeting (Monday with Putin),” Kerry said said Sunday.
The Syria conflict needs to end to protect civilians and ease Europe’s migrant crisis, fueled largely by a flood of Syrian war refugees, Kerry said.
“We can’t just keep donating to take care of refugees. We have to prevent the refugees from having to be refugees, from having to leave their homes,” he said. “The world is looking at this and wondering whether the institutions that have been created for so long to deal with these kinds of issues are going to come together and function.”
