United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that President Bashar Al-Assad and his family have no role in the future Syria, according to Reuters.
Tillerson told reporters in Geneva on the last leg of a week-long trip, “The United States wants a whole and unified Syria with no role for Bashar Al-Assad in the government,” adding, "The only issue is how that should that be brought about.” Tillerson said the only reason Assad’s forces had succeeded in turning the tide in the more than six-year war was “air support they have received from Russia”. He said that Iran, the other main ally of Damascus, should not be given credit for the defeat of Islamic State, as it was a “hanger-on”.