The new U.S. chief envoy for Syria on Monday pledged continued American backing for political opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as the country’s conflict moves into a fourth year.
“Assad will
go to any length to maintain power,” Daniel Rubinstein said in a YouTube
message in Arabic. “This year, let us remember and honor all those who have suffered
as a result of the Assad regime’s response” to the opposition.
Rubinstein
takes over the envoy job this week as U.S.-backed peace
talks have stalledand rebels
are losing ground on the battlefield. A key
rebel-held town fell to Syrian government forces over the
weekend.
Rubinstein
is a longtime diplomat and Middle East expert. He succeeds Robert Ford, the
last U.S. ambassador to Syria, a position the Obama administration now calls
the American representative to the Syrian people.
Since the
Obama administration closed the U.S. Embassy in Damascus in 2012, Ford has
spent much of his time shuttling between Washington and Turkey, where the main
Syrian opposition group is based. He was instrumental in bringing the
opposition to peace talks in Geneva this year despite wide reservations among some
leaders that talking to Assad’s representatives would weaken their influence
with rebels on the front lines.
The talks
went nowhere and are in limbo. They represented the only means the Obama
administration has advanced to end the uprising, which passed its third
anniversary over the weekend.
Rubinstein
is expected to follow Ford’s model of frequent contact with opposition groups,
despite the current impasse. Announcing Rubinstein’s appointment Monday,
Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Rubinstein would travel to the region
soon but gave no details.
“This week
is indeed a somber occasion and a sober reminder to all of us of the work still
ahead — and the United States will stand with you,” Rubinstein said in his
message, also posted on the Web site for the
U.S. Embassy in Damascus. Washington Post
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