Tillerson Says Assad’s Fate Is in Russia’s Hands

President Bashar al-Assad’s fate will be left up to Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly told the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week, adding that the Trump administration will focus on defeating the so-called Islamic State.

He said that any military action against regime forces would only be carried out to achieve two strategic goals: protecting U.S.-backed forces in their fight against ISIS and preventing chemical weapons attacks. The U.S. will no longer focus on ousting Assad or building the capacity of the opposition to negotiate at U.N.-brokered peace talks.

Tillerson’s latest comments contradict earlier assurances that the U.S. would demand that Assad cede power after the regime allegedly used chemical weapons against civilians in April.

A State Department official told Foreign Policy that the U.S. continues to be “committed to the Geneva process” and encourages a “credible political process that can resolve the question of Syria’s future. Ultimately, this process, in our view, will lead to a resolution of Assad’s status.”

“The Syrian people should determine their country’s political future through a political process,” the official added.

Syrian Army Calls for Temporary Cease-Fire in Southern Syria

The Syrian military called another temporary cease-fire in southern Syria on Monday, in preparation for the latest round of Russian-sponsored peace talks in Kazakhstan, according to Reuters.

However, rebel leaders accused the army of almost immediately carrying out barrel bomb attacks in opposition-held areas in the city of Daraa and the town of Naima and the Daraa countryside.

The cessation of hostilities is expected to be in effect in the southern provinces of Daraa, Quneitra and Sweida “to support the peace process and national reconciliations” until midnight on July 6, the army said in a statement carried on Syrian state-run news.

Several rebel groups said they will not attend the talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana because the government has repeatedly violated earlier cease-fire agreements.

“This cease-fire is an attempt by the Russians and the regime to bring back the opposition to Astana and give them assurances on the ground they will stop the shelling on condition they attend,” Sohaib Alraheel, spokesman of Liwa al-Furqan Brigades, a faction of the Free Syrian Army, told Reuters.

French Legal Expert to Head U.N. Investigative Team Into Syrian War Crimes

Catherine Marchi-Uhel will lead the new United Nations investigative team looking into possible war crimes and other violations of international law in Syria since 2011, according to Al Jazeera.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed the French legal expert and former judge on Monday to lead the “International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism,” (IIIM) the formal name given to the group in a resolution passed by the General Assembly last December.

The IIIM has a mandate “to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations and abuses and prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings” in the future.

It will work alongside the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, created by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council.

Marchi-Uhel previously served as head of chambers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as well as an international judge for the U.N. missions in Kosovo and Cambodia.

Recommended Reads

• Vox: Assad Still Denies Using Chemical Weapons. Here’s More Proof He Does.
• Daily Beast: Meet the Brave Journalists Taking on ISIS
• Bloomberg: The Arguments for and Against Removing Syria’s Assad
• Antiwar.com: The Bizarre Case of Bashar al-Assad
• The N.Y. Times: How Iran Recruited Afghan Refugees to Fight Assad’s War