Gulf states lead call for regime change in Syria
Though the Gulf has called for the overthrow of Assad, sources suggest Obama agreed to Putin’s increased support for him
The Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the world’s second largest intergovernmental body after the United Nations, issued a dramatic call this Sunday for the overthrow of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
The new OIC communique comes in the wake of recent indications that the West is willing to slow-down the offensive against Assad to focus on defeating the Islamic State (IS).
Earlier this month, Downing Street declared plans for “limited” airstrikes against IS targets in Syria, coupled with a diplomatic push that would see Assad remain in power for six months.
Toward a ‘new Syrian state’
Highlighting the need for urgent action to address Syria’s escalating refugee crisis, the OIC communique on behalf of 57 member states urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to renew “the pursuit of rapid political solutions” to the conflict that would establish a “transitional government with full executive power that would allow building a new Syrian state”.
This would require the UNSC to “fully implement the Geneva Communique,” the aborted 2012 roadmap for the transition of Syria to a new unity government without Assad.
Among the major reasons the Geneva plan broke down was US and UK determination to continue arming and training rebel groups even during the peace talks, the exclusion of Kurdish groups from the process, and the West’s insistence at the time that the outcome would necessarily exclude Assad from power.
The new OIC communique is thus effectively a call to escalate military support for Syrian rebels to forcibly oust Assad from power.
– See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/gulf-states-lead-call-regime-change-syria-889890058#sthash.8dYh1Pmb.dpuf
