Mark Weber: Russia’s role in Syria made peace talks possible

Press TV has interviewed Mark Weber, director of Institute for Historical Review in California, to discuss the remarks made by the UN's special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, praising Russia’s “instrumental” role in efforts to find a political solution to the five-year-old crisis in Syria.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Tell me the significance now of the UN envoy actually accepting the fact and saying that Russia has played a pivotal role in this situation in Syria?

Weber: Yes, the remark by the UN envoy about a momentum is very well put. There is a momentum toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict and it is due to really, I think, two main factors.

First of all Russia’s intervention some months ago on the side of Syria in a very forthright way has served to give much more stability and force to the Assad government and this has changed the situation on the ground and made the negotiation for the United States and for other countries more possible and the second factor is that the United States has changed.

When the fighting force began, the US government took the position and tried to push for [the] overthrow of the Assad government and removal of President Assad. That did not happen because the United States miscalculated about the strength of the Assad government and the strength of the Syrian army and the determination of Russia and Iran to continue to back Syria.

So the United States and Russia now are in a much better position to cooperate to try to bring about a peaceful solution because of those two factors.

Press TV: You said the United States’ position has changed, however still we are hearing coming out of circles in Washington that Assad should step down. So I guess the question of the day, do you think that these sides are really at the point that they want this war to end?

Weber: Yes there was a very comprehensive article in the Atlantic recently by J.J. Goldberg about the internal dispute between Kerry and President Obama and he made the point that Kerry has been pushing much more than Obama for military action to try to bring down the Assad government but that’s apparently been overwritten by President Obama who I think is more realistic about what is going on. But all of this really does represent a shift or a more realistic, I should say, US assessment of the situation that is not going to bring down President Assad by military force in the way the United States has been trying in the past.

So there is more possibility for peace. The problem though is going to be trying to work out any kind of resolution to the conflict with the opposition which is fractured, which does not have a clear idea of any alternative to the Assad government.

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