Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has said that the Syrian crisis cannot be solved as long as Bashar al-Assad remains in power.
“The solution to the crisis in Syria is for Assad to go,” al-Jubeir told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday following the conclusion of the 4th Arab-South American Summit held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Al-Jubeir said earlier it was difficult to envision a role for Iran in Syria peacemaking efforts due to its military role in the conflict there.
Jubeir repeated Riyadh’s view that Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Iran, must leave power if peace was to be achieved.
“Iran must withdraw from Syria and must stop supplying weapons to Bashar al-Assad’s regime and must withdraw the Shi’ite militias that it sent … and then it may play a role,” Jubeir said, adding that Iran was now an “occupier of Arab lands in Syria.”
The Syrian Coalition welcomes Saudi Arabia’s reiteration of calls on Assad to step down, commending Saudi Arabia’s firm insistence on excluding Assad and his clique to reach a Syria in which they only represent a dark chapter in its history.
It stresses that Syrian people who have made immense sacrifices since the revolution began to reject attempts to rehabilitate the Assad regime or to re-produce it under any pretext. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Anadolu)
