US Refusal to Include Assad in Coalition 'Music to Ears' of ISIL - Ex-Envoy

Former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Charles Freeman Jr. claims that the US administration’s refusal to include the government of Syria in a regional coalition against ISIL is music to the ears of the terrorist group’s leaders.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US administration’s refusal to include the government of Syria in a regional coalition against ISIL is music to the ears of the terrorist group’s leaders, former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Charles Freeman Jr. told Sputnik.

“[The US statement earlier on Tuesday] must have been music to the ears of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and his colleagues,” Freeman said on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said the US government refuses to support any regional counter-terrorism coalition against ISIL that would include the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Toner issued the statement a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his support in mediating a regional coalition against ISIL involving Syria, Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Freeman said the State Department’s statement ruling out Syrian participation was “a bow to the Gulf Arabs, who have become implacable enemies of Bashar al-Assad and his regime.”

The former ambassador also said the administration of President Barack Obama was currently courting the Gulf Arab states “in order to reduce opposition to a possible nuclear deal with Iran.”

However, Freeman warned that a negotiated or compromise solution to the ongoing Syrian civil war was not possible without including the Assad government and Iran.

“No end to the mayhem in Syria is possible without the participation of the Syrian government and its Iranian allies,” the envoy said.

Freeman explained the State Department announcement meant that there could be no hope for an end to the conflict, or for an effective, coordinated response to ISIL forces, for the foreseeable future.

The US refusal to deal with Assad “is also a vote for the indefinite continuation of the fighting in Syria and Iraq and against the formation of an effective regional counter to the self-styled Islamic State,” he concluded.

Charles Freeman, Jr. is a past president of the Middle East Policy Council, co-chair of the US-China Policy Foundation and a Lifetime Director of the Atlantic Council.

Syria has been embroiled in civil since March 2011 as the Syrian Army battles insurgent groups, among which Islamist extremists such as ISIL and the al-Nusra Front, who also fight among themselves. Estimated 310,000 people have died in fighting and atrocities by April 2015.