Kerry: Syrian Rebels, Govt Could Cooperate Against ISIS Without Assad’s Ouster

It might be possible for the Syrian government and the armed opposition forces to cooperate against militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) without President Bashar al-Assad having first left power, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday. If troops could be assembled, Kerry was confident that the jihadists could be defeated in “months”.

“I think we know that without the ability to find some ground forces that are prepared to take on Daesh, this will not be won completely from the air”, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told a meeting of the OSCE in Belgrade, referring to the jihadist group commonly known as Islamic State, reports Reuters.

Kerry was in Greece on the final leg of a week-long trip to Europe, where he held a series of talks on the war in Syria and efforts to combat Islamic State militants in their strongholds there.

Mr Kerry lauded British Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to go to Parliament and seek approval for British strikes against the Islamic State. “We applaud his leadership”, Kerry said. “We will continue to work very, very closely with our Iraqi partners on exactly who would be deployed, where they would be deployed, what kinds of missions people would undertake, how they would support Iraqi efforts to degrade and destroy Daesh”. Turkey and the US say the plane crossed into Turkish territory from Syria.

Kerry said a “political transition” in Syria would pave the way for a united front against Islamic State – “the Syrian army together with the opposition… together with Russian Federation, the United States and others to go and fight Daesh”. Western officials say Russian jets have hit mainly other anti-Assad rebels.

Russian Federation and Iran, Assad’s main allies, have said it will be up to the Syrian people to decide on Assad’s role at a future presidential election.

He believes that would allow the “scourge” of IS to be eliminated much faster.