DPA
Cairo
Saudi Arabia has said the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power is a “matter of time” as regional and international powers quarrel over how to end the civil war in Syria.
“If Assad does not respond to the political solution, he will be excluded through a military solution,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in Riyadh late Tuesday.
“He will leave sooner or later ... but we hope the solution will be political in order to prevent bloodshed,” Jubeir said.
An array of secular and Islamist rebels are fighting against Assad, who has been in power since 2000.
“The Syrian opposition is actively standing up to Assad with the passage of time,” Jubeir said.
Assad’s troops have in recent months suffered major territorial losses, mainly to Islamist rebels like the Islamic State (IS) group.
The setbacks have prompted Russia, a key ally of Assad, to strengthen its support for the regime.
Russia’s foreign ministry said last week that the country is sending humanitarian aid and military equipment to Assad’s government to “fight terrorism”, especially IS.
Assad vowed in an interview published yesterday that he would not leave power under foreign pressure, saying it is up to the Syrian people to decide on his leadership.
“If (I) will leave, it will be by the demand of the people, not a decision by the United States or the United Nations Security Council,” Assad told Russian reporters.
Russia’s military support for Assad’s regime has raised concerns in the West and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Moscow for talks focusing on Syria.
Assad is also backed by Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
His allies maintain that the Syrian government is fighting terrorism and that the world will suffer unless it works with Damascus to battle Islamist militants.
In September 2014, the United States started an international air campaign against IS in Syria, where the extremist militia controls significant territory.
A year later, Australian warplanes have joined the fray, carrying out their first air strike against IS targets inside Syria, Defence Minister Kevin Andrews said yesterday.
In Paris, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said his country would begin air strikes in Syria in “the coming weeks”.
France has been conducting air strikes with an international coalition against IS in Iraq since last year.
IS’s territorial expansion in Syria and Iraq has raised global fears of the emergence of a regional militant hub.
Germany meanwhile has reiterated its opposition to the deployment of ground troops in Syria.
“If one theoretically went in with ground troops - which we do not want - one would always hit the wrong people,” German Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen told national public broadcaster ZDF.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday that unless the UN Security Council unites over solving the Syrian crisis, regional powers will continue to be divided.
“This kind of tough division really made this situation unsolvable,” Ban said.
Noting that he has seen reports of increased Russian military support for the Syrian government, Ban said there can be no military solution. He raised concern “about the parties arming and providing arms”.
The Syrian conflict, which began as a peaceful protest in 2011, has claimed at least 250,000 lives, according to UN estimates.
More than half the country’s pre-war population of 22.4mn has been internally displaced or fled abroad, with tens of thousands of them now seeking refuge in Europe.