Turkey ready to make a deal with Obama on ousting Assad

Looks like Turkey is ready to deal with Obama in order to transition Assad out of power over the course of six months, but I’m not sure how Assad is going to feel about this:

REUTERS – Turkey is ready to accept a political transition in Syria in which President Bashar al-Assad remains in symbolic power for six months before leaving office, two senior government officials said on Tuesday.

“Work on a plan for Assad’s departure is underway … (Assad) can stay for six months and we accept that because there will be a guarantee of his departure,” one of the officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We have moved forward on the issue to a certain degree with the United States and our other allies. There is not an exact consensus on when the six month period would begin, but we think it won’t be too long.”

Turkey may be ready to make a deal on getting rid of Assad with Obama, but Russia is the one bombing Assad’s enemies and they aren’t mentioned in the write-up on this deal. I’d think if Turkey were going to transition Assad out of power, Russia would need to be at the table to agree to this or they might find themselves in Putin’s crosshairs.

In fact I think Russia’s very presence in Syria is what is pushing Turkey to make alternative plans now to get rid of Assad. After all this civil war has been fought for years, but now that Russia is aiding Assad in effectively defeating his enemies, now all of a sudden Turkey is ready to make a deal.


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