Austrian minister says Assad should take part in talks on Syrian settlement

Ahtisaari said he presented the Russian proposal to authorities from the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, but was ignored.

“President Assad led Eid al-Adha prayers at the Al-Adel mosque in Damascus, with senior officials from the [ruling Baath] party, the state, and a number of Muslim religious leaders and civilians”, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported on Thursday.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday that Russia’s expanding military buildup in Syria could “pour gasoline on the [Islamic State] phenomenon”, because Moscow is bent on backing the embattled Syrian president – one of the extremist group’s top enemies.

Tusk said they also agreed to set up controversial “hotspot” reception centers in frontline states – probably in Greece and Italy – to more quickly sort genuine conflict refugees from economic migrants. “It was an opportunity lost in 2012”, Ahtisaari said in the Guardian interview, adding that the West was now obligated to take in the refugees produced by the crisis as a way of “paying the bills we have caused ourselves”.

They have launched a Facebook page called Sorry, Syria, where so far about two dozen users have expressed “shame” over Iran’s assistance for Assad’s “crimes” and warned that silence could be interpreted as consent. And we should reinforce this position with action. According to some data, General John Allen, who was appointed as the coordinator of USA policy against ISIS a year ago, is going to resign.

“We urgently need a joint initiative to secure the possibility of maintaining Syria as a unified and secular state”, Steinmeier said.

As far as Shorten could tell, there was “not a great deal to separate” the Assad regime and Islamic State. Iran continues to supply Assad with massive military support replete with advisers, intelligence, and ground troops. Instead, Western powers, demanding that “Assad must go”, kept showering support on jihadist “rebels” waging war against Christians and the “apostate” tyrant in Damascus.

There is no easy solution to the plethora of interconnected disasters over which Obama has presided. Even though the resulting protests and worldwide pressure forced a formal Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, wishful thinking prompted Western leaders to try and rehabilitate Assad, turning a blind eye to his repressive and mafia-style business practices, on which his regime is based. We should hope Obama gets over his aversion to American leadership in time to start cleaning up the mess he has made over the past 6½ years.