WASHINGTON — The Biden administration believes the chances are growing that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapses amid the lightning insurgent offensive underway, a senior US official advised Al-Monitor.
Thousands of Syrians fled Homs on Friday as a insurgent alliance led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham superior on the nation’s third-largest metropolis. The seize of Homs would deal one other blow to the Assad authorities, which misplaced management of the main cities of Aleppo and Hama previously week.
The US official, talking on situation of anonymity, stated the Biden administration has assessed that the government-held metropolis of Homs may collapse inside days, earlier than the rebels flip their sights on the capital of Damascus.
A special US official stated they’ve “reasonable confidence” Homs may fall as quickly as Friday night time.
The tumult in Syria comes practically 14 years into the nation’s civil warfare. Fighting between the Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian authorities and the insurgent forces searching for to topple it has killed lots of of hundreds of individuals, spawned a brand new technology of extremist teams and precipitated the largest displacement disaster since World War II.
Assad’s forces had managed to claw again many of the nation — all however a pocket of insurgent resistance in northwest Syria and a Kurdish stronghold within the semiautonomous northeast. The warfare had settled right into a stalemate previous to the insurgent offensive that started late final month.
A State Department spokesperson advised Al-Monitor that the administration is “intently monitoring” the state of affairs on the bottom and “urges safety of civilians, together with members of minority teams.”
The spokesperson reiterated requires a political settlement according to UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which in 2015 laid out a roadmap for a nationwide ceasefire, a brand new structure and UN-supervised elections in Syria.
“Constant refusal by the Assad regime to have interaction on this course of led on to the occasions we at the moment are witnessing,” the spokesperson stated.
