Shaaban: There is U.S. recognition that Russia knows the region better

Damascus, SANA – Presidential Political and Media Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban said the West has retracted on Syria and its media is trying to save some face.

“For the first time the West finds that when it wants to do something it can’t,” Shaaban told the Syrian Television in an interview aired on Wednesday.

Yet, she added, the Western media, which has the most control of information, is trying to throw dust in the eyes “so that to provide a sort of cover for the retreat in the Western attitude.”

“Plenty of the statements made are for taking a turn and saving face,” she noted.

She said that if the Western countries had really reached a conviction that the political solution is a must in Syria, then providing support and funds to the terrorists must be stopped in implementation of the Security Council’s resolutions in this regard.

“There can’t be a political solution in Syria without eliminating terrorism,” Shaaban added.

She said that in light of the failure of US-led anti-ISIS coalition, in whose ineffectiveness the world has come to believe, the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative on forming a wide front against terrorism stands as the “first military track that needs to be done so as to help the Syrian army in fighting terrorism.”

That, she said, should lead to a UN political decision to enforce the Security Council’s resolutions and compel the countries which are funding and arming the terrorists to stop doing that.

Asked about the change in the U.S. attitude towards Syria, Shaaban said there is a tendency on the current U.S. administration’s part to find a solution to the crisis in Syria, referring to an “implicit understanding” between the US and Russia to reach that solution.

This, she noted, indicated U.S. recognition that Russia knows the region and does assess the situation better.

In her comments on the initiative of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and the newly created four working groups, Shaaban said Syria deals with what de Mistura presents from a pure national perspective and on the basis of pure national interest.

On the idea of forming a new Syrian government with a broader opposition representation, Shaaban said that the term that is becoming more acceptable and realistic is that of a national unity government, stressing however that everything is contingent on the Syrian dialogue.

H. Said

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