Al-Sharq al-Awsat, London, March 17
I can’t get my head around what US Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier this week: that [Syrian President] Bashar Al-Assad might be considered a legitimate leader because the West needs him in the fight against the Islamic State. Does Kerry understand that his insane words push millions of people into the hands of the Islamic State? If he thinks that he can legitimize Assad in order to delegitimize the Islamic State, then millions of Arabs will prove him wrong by legitimizing the Islamic State out of hatred for Assad. Assad is a vicious killer. He is supported by Iran and Hezbollah, who aided him in his cleansing of close to a quarter of a million Syrians so far. Does Kerry actually believe that millions of Arabs, let alone Syrians, will remain quiet in light of his legitimization of a mass murderer? Obama’s administration is already perceived negatively in the region for its lack of intervention in Syria. Kerry made some pretty embarrassing remarks in the past, but this one is simply not comprehensible. The United States’ blind support of genocide is simply something no one in the region can keep up with. Has Kerry gone mad?! – Abd al-Rahman al-Rashid