Emmanuel Macron (Twitter)
The recently elected French president said Wednesday he is
looking to drastically change his country's course on Syria and will
no longer seek the removal of the war-torn country's leader. The
move comes as tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalate over
Syria's future.
In an interview with eight European newspapers, French President
Emmanuel Macron revealed a major departure from the position of
previous French administrations on the six-year war in Syria. He
said he would abandon efforts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, who faces an insurgency led by various rebel groups backed
by the West, Turkey and Arab Gulf states and jihadist groups such as
the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda. Macron
said Assad, who enjoys support from Russia and Iran, was not the
enemy of France and that, with Russia's support, French foreign
policy in Syria would focus on targeting jihadist groups, whose
supporters have killed hundreds in France.
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"The new perspective that I have had on this subject is that I
have not stated that Bashar al-Assad's departure is a pre-condition
for everything because nobody has shown me a legitimate successor."
Macron said, according to
Reuters.
"My lines are clear: Firstly, a complete fight against all the
terrorist groups. They are our enemies," he added. "We need
everybody's cooperation, especially Russia, to eradicate them."
Despite having good relations with the Syrian government prior to
the war, France became one of its greatest detractors. Since the
2011 protests that triggered the current crisis in Syria, France has
overwhelmingly sided with Assad's opposition, even as a number of
rebel groups became increasingly supportive of or overwhelmed by
ultraconservative Sunni Muslim organizations. Among Western leaders,
former French President Nicholas Sarkozy was among the foremost
supporters of efforts to overthrow Assad and repeatedly call for his
resignation over alleged war crimes committed against civilians.
France's militant anti-Assad stance may have partially stemmed
from its attempt to return as a "great power" in the Middle East,
counter the U.S.'s domination of regional foreign policy and to
appease majority-Sunni Muslim powers such as Saudi Arabia, according
to a 2015 analysis by The
Washington Post.
In recent years, however, national security has become a major
issue in France. A series of deadly massacres claimed by ISIS and
other jihadist supporters have killed more than 230 people since
2015. The country remains in a state of emergency since November
2015 when a series of gun and bomb attacks killed about 130 people
in Paris. Macron said earlier this month he sought to end the state
of emergency, which broadens authorities' ability to investigate
suspected terrorism, but that he would likely integrate certain,
controversial measures such as warrantless house searches and house
arrests into standard police code, according to
France 24. With domestic tensions high, France has acknowledged
the new realities of Syria's war.
In October 2015, Russia staged a direct military intervention at
the request of Assad, whose fatigued military forces had been forced
to withdraw from swaths of the country. Since then, the Syrian army
and its allies have
retaken virtually every population center in the country and
were found to have been
the most engaged faction against ISIS in April. Earlier that
month, President Donald Trump, who had previously made
a similar concession to Assad's rule, accused the Syrian leader
of conducting a chemical weapons attack against civilians,
allegations
vehemently denied by both Damascus and Moscow. Less than 72
hours later, the U.S. bombed a Syrian airbase in response and has
created an even wider rift with Russia by shooting down a Syrian
fighter jet that local, majority-Kurd forces backed by Washington
accused of bombing too close to their positions.
In response to Sunday's incident, Russia said it would sever a
"deconfliction line" used to avoid air incidents with the U.S. and
said it would treat any U.S. or allied aircraft as "targets"
for Russia's surface-to-air missile systems. Tensions over the
U.S.'s military presence, which has been declared illegal by the
Syrian government, have manifested in the country's south too, where
the U.S. has set up a Special Forces camp to train and equip
anti-Assad fighters battling ISIS. Pro-government forces advancing
east have been struck three times by U.S. forces claiming that they
breached a "deconfliction zone" unilaterally established by the U.S.
and its allies in southern Syria.