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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A US State Department spokesman told Rudaw Tuesday that any claim by Syria’s top negotiator at the Geneva peace talks was worthless because the regime had lost legitimacy.
Jared Caplan, director and regional Arabic language deputy spokesperson at the State Department, said that the aim of the Geneva talks is to determine Syria’s future and bring lasting peace for a population that has suffered bloodshed for nearly five years.
“The only way to achieve a lasting peace in Syria is to go for a negotiated political solution, and that has to happen here in Geneva,” Caplan told Rudaw TV.
“The United States is here to support both the Syrian people represented by the High National Commission (HNC) for negotiations. We also have to support the process. The United Nations is leading this and the United States is part of the UN," he added.
Asked about comments by Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian regime’s top representative at the Geneva talks, who said that Syria’s Kurds – or any other group -- should forget about autonomy, Caplan said Jaafari was representing a rump regime.
"I would say that Bashar Jaafari represents a regime that has lost all legitimacy, President (Barack) Obama has said it many times, and he is only representing his government alone, not the people of Syria."
Asked about the outcome of the Geneva talks, Caplan said: “What is going to be made here in the Geneva talks are decisions that will have a future for Syria.
“Most importantly, we are going to have an interim government that has full executive authority in agreement with the Geneva Communique and according to the UN Security Council Resolution 2254, and that is what is most important, because that is the transition from Assad era into the future of Syria.”
He dismissed claims that the Geneva talks are meant to help Assad remain in power, saying what is demanded at the talks is "to make sure that we have protection for the Syrian people.”
He added that “the United States wants to work with the international community to lift the suffering of the Syrian people after five years of bloodshed.”
Caplan said that Washington would respect the outcome of the talks.
"We as the USA are prepared to continue our support for the people of Syria, including all ethnicities and all religions," he said.
He noted that the United States has helped Syrian refugees and displaced people with billions of dollars in aid over the past five years.
"The United States has provided over $5 billion in humanitarian assistance since the beginning of the crisis and we are going to continue to support the Syrian people. We are going to support the Free Syrian Army (FSA) that is working to liberate people, not only from Daesh (ISIS) but from other terrorist groups too."
Asked why Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) was not at the talks, Caplan said: “The United States does not determine who is invited to participate in the negotiations, we support the process, we support the HNC.
He said the invitation was a “private matter” decided between the UN and the Syrian people, and confirmed that Brett H. McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition fighting ISIS, was in Syria for two days and met with Kurdish and Arab leaders.
Explaining the main aims of the United States against ISIS at this time, he said that "the USA is part of a global coalition against ISIS. US is committed to defeat ISIS. We are supporting people on the ground. We are committed to work on all five fronts, that include: defeating them on the battleground, defeating the jihadist ideology, stopping the flow of foreign fighters and lastly supporting the Syrian people."
Caplan said that talks were important, but the world wanted to see the Assad regime’s deeds.
“It is not enough to have talks, we need to see negotiations, we need to see lifting of the siege so that people can have food, we need to see the stopping of the bombardment, we need to see the release of women and children, ultimately we need to the positive signals," he said, warning Assad that the world is watching.
Caplan stressed that Russia and the US have a common enemy in Syria, but accused Russia for targeting opposition forces, not terrorist groups like ISIS.
Responding to a question about the Kurdistan Region and its acceptance of tens of thousands of refugees from Syria, Caplan said: "The refugee crisis is recently common, and that what is happening in Syria has not happened since WWII.
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