Paris // France no longer sees the departure of Bashar Al Assad as a priority in the Syrian conflict, president Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, making the policy official for the first time.
The new French leader said instead that fighting extremist groups such as ISIL had to be the international community’s top goal in a conflict that grew out of protests against the Syrian president in 2011 but has since become increasingly complex and multifaceted.
"The real change I've made on this question, is that I haven't said the deposing of Bashar Al Assad is a prerequisite for everything," Mr Macron said in an interview with several European newspapers, including Britain's Guardian, Spain's El Pais and Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
“Because no one has introduced me to his legitimate successor,” the French president continued.
His comments were met with dismay by the Syrian opposition.
“Shame on France, whose leader Emmanuel Macron does not see Bashar as its enemy or an enemy to humanity,” tweeted Ahmed Ramadan, a member of the Syrian National Coalition, the main umbrella organisation of opposition groups.
“A tragic fall for morality and humanity,” Mr Ramadan added.
Mr Macron, who took office last month, said he now saw two key priorities in Syria.
“My line is clear: one, a total fight against terrorist groups. They are our enemies ... We need the cooperation of everyone to eradicate them, particularly Russia. Two: stability in Syria, because I don’t want a failed state.”
Mr Macron said the international community had made a “collective error” in thinking the conflict could be solved “only with military force”, adding: “My deep conviction is that we need a political and diplomatic roadmap.”
But he repeated his warning that the use of chemical weapons and the violation of humanitarian corridors set up to deliver aid to desperate Syrian civilians were “red lines” and that France would be willing to act alone in response.
France was among western nations pushing most vocally for Mr Al Assad to go at the start of the conflict, which has since left more than 320,000 people dead and forced millions from their homes.
Meanwhile, Turkey on Thursday said multinational forces from differing sides in the Syria conflict could be deployed to ensure peace in so-called “de-escalation” zones aimed at ending the civil war.
Iran, Russia and Turkey agreed an accord on May 4 at peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana that would see four de-escalation regions set up across Syria.
Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the three countries now had a working group to thrash out the logistics for keeping the peace in the de-escalation zones.
He said that in the Idlib region of northern Syria the monitoring forces would be “mainly” Turkish and Russian troops.
Around Damascus, it would be “mainly Russia and Iran”, he added, quoted by Turkish media at a briefing for local reporters in Ankara.
In the southern Deraa region, Jordanian and American forces could be deployed, he said. Mr Kalin did not mention who might be deployed around Homs, the other intended de-escalation zone.
Moscow had meanwhile suggested that Kyrgyz and Kazakh forces could also be involved, the spokesman said.
Mr Kalin said the technical delegations were discussing the logistics and details of these zones.
“Who will be deployed and how? How will order be secured? Who will watch the process and how?” he said.
“Talks between Turkish, Russian and Iranian officials continue intensely. We are hopeful.”
The memorandum agreed during talks in Astana does not specify a start date for the implementation of the zones.
The zones do not cover the entire country and are located across eight of Syria’s 14 provinces. The Kurdish-controlled areas of north-eastern Syria are not included.
It also remains to be seen how the Damascus regime and the United States will digest the proposals.
* Agence France-Presse