‘Assad removal not a priority’ — Macron unveils new realpolitik

PARIS: Recalibrating France’s long-held policy of insisting that Syrian leader Bashar Assad must step down, President Emmanuel Macron has opted for realpolitik by making the fight against terror the top priority.

In an interview with eight European newspapers Thursday, he unveiled a revamped policy to address a conflict that has claimed more than 320,000 lives and created millions of refugees.

Warning of the potential for a “failed state” if Assad were forcibly removed, Macron said the cooperation of the Syrian leader’s key ally Russia was needed to “eradicate” the extremists fighting Damascus.

“The real change I’ve made on this question is that I haven’t said the deposing of Bashar Assad is a prerequisite for everything,” said Macron. “Because no one has introduced me to his legitimate successor.”

He added: “My line is clear: One, a total fight against terrorist groups. They are our enemies... We need the cooperation of everyone to eradicate them, particularly Russia. Two: stability in Syria, because I don’t want a failed state.”

Macron’s statements formalized a shift that had already begun in the wake of the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, which were planned in Syria and executed from Belgium.

Meanwhile, Turkish officials said Thursday that US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has written to his Turkish counterpart, reassuring him that arms provided to Syrian Kurdish fighters would be taken back once Daesh militants are ousted from their main stronghold in Syria, the city of Raqqa.

Turkish Defense Ministry officials said in a statement that Mattis also reassured Defense Minister Fikri Isik that the US would regularly provide Turkey with a list of arms provided to the fighters while US military advisers on the field would ensure that the arms do not go outside of the Syria battle zones.

A US decision to launch an offensive to capture Raqqa in partnership with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has complicated relations with Ankara, which views the group’s Kurdish fighters as an extension of an insurgent Kurdish terror group operating in Turkey.

The officials said Mattis told Isik in the letter that 80 percent of the force that would capture Raqqa would be made up of Arabs and that an Arab force would hold the city.

Separately, Australia said it had lifted a suspension of its airstrikes against Daesh targets in Syria that was imposed amid tensions with Russia after a US fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane this week.