Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said Sunday that Russia’s efforts to support Bashar Assad would not succeed in keeping him in power.
In a press conference in Riyadh with Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, Al-Jubeir stressed that previous efforts to prop up Assad, including by Iran, had “failed.”
“Now, (Assad) has sought the help of Russia, which will fail to save him,” Al-Jubeir said, urging Moscow to “end its air operations against the moderate Syrian opposition.”
Al-Jubeir said that “it is impossible for a man behind the killing of 300,000 innocent people… to remain” in power. Assad’s departure “is a matter of time… sooner or later, this regime will fall, opening the way for building a new Syria without Bashar Assad.”
On Saturday, Jubeir said that “Bashar al-Assad will leave — have no doubt about it. He will either leave by a political process or he will be removed by force.”
“We will push as much as we can to ensure that the political process works. But if it doesn’t work, it will be because of the obstinacy of the Syrian regime and that of its allies. And should that prove to be the case, then it becomes clear that there is no option to remove Bashar al-Assad except by force.” Al-Jubeir added. (Source: Agencies)
