In a live interview with the Arab al-Mayadeen TV, former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said on Wednesday evening that the Syrian administration of President Bashar al-Assad is in its strongest military position in six years and in contrast, the opposition, whether the political and military groups, are at their weakest, he said.
Ford, now a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, also said the Syrian opposition has made mistakes during the crisis.
He said Iran is helping the Russians to shrink the US influence in the region, adding that the US has, to some extent, lost in Syria.
Regarding the Kurds and the US support to them in northern Syria, Ford remarked that the idea that the US will militarily defend the Kurdish interest is wrong, warning that the Kurds shouldn't rely on the US help but should embark on talks with the Damascus government directly.
Payman Yazdani from Tehran Times newspaper discussed the issue with a senior member of Turkey’s Republican Peoples Party (CHP), Dr. Osman Faruk logoglu.
For his part , commenting on the Robert Ford’s remarks on the Syrian Kurds not to rely on the US and also disagreeing some parts of his remarks, Logoglu said, “ I think Ambassador Ford is right when he urges the Syrian Kurds not to rely on the US to defend their interests, but to approach Assad. The US priority is to defeat ISIL, not to set up an independent Kurdish state in Syria.”
Touching on the significance of the role of Russia and two key regional players, Iran and Turkey, he continued, “Whatever the outcome of the conflict, the US will not be the only game setter in Syria. There are other powers: Russia, Iran and Turkey. At the end of the day and after so much bloodshed, it will and must be the Syrians themselves, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and others to determine the future design of their country.”
Ambassador Loğoğlu retired in 2006 after 35 years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Appointed as Turkey’s Ambassador to Denmark and later to Azerbaijan, Loğoğlu became Deputy Undersecretary for multilateral political affairs in 1998. He then served as Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry until his posting as Ambassador of Turkey to Washington (2001-2006). He attended Brandeis University, did his doctorate at Princeton University and was a lecturer in Political Science at Middlebury College, 1969-1970. He is the author of İsmet İnönü and the Making of Modern Turkey and of numerous articles on foreign affairs. Loğoğlu served as President of the think-tank the Eurasian Strategic Studies Center. He was the Deputy Chairman of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO (2006-2010). Elected to the parliament from Adana in June 2011, he served as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. He was the Vice-Chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in charge of foreign relations (2011-2014).
Interview by Payman Yazdani
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