New York: Donor countries will not reconstruct the war’s damage until a “credible” political process emerges from negotiations, a senior U.S. official said Monday.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the political transition should be “away from Syrian President Al Assad”.
David Satterfield, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for Near East affairs, told reporters that was the consensus of diplomats from 17 countries and organizations from Europe and the Middle East who met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to discuss Syria on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
“We are all committed to humanitarian aid,” he added. “And that will continue to flow, of course. But the reconstruction of Syria depends very much on that credible political process.”
Their biggest lever, Satterfield said, is that without a political process, “you’re not going to get the kind of investment by the international community that’s really necessary for the reconstruction of Syria.”
The coalition that met in New York does not include Russia, which has troops in the country and backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
