{"id":151302,"date":"2015-09-14T06:01:26","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T06:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=151302"},"modified":"2015-09-14T06:01:26","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T06:01:26","slug":"ending-syria-war-key-to-migrant-crisis-us-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=151302","title":{"rendered":"Ending Syria war key to migrant crisis – US general"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ending the conflict in Syria and Iraq is key to solving the migrant crisis facing Europe, a senior US official has told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Gen John Allen, special presidential envoy for the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group, said IS had to be defeated and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “had to go”.<\/p>\n

He said it was “heart-wrenching” to see people fleeing the region.<\/p>\n

But he added that the coalition was in a stronger place than a year ago.<\/p>\n

He also praised Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as “a real partner”.<\/p>\n

Europe is struggling to deal with an enormous influx of refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria but also from Iraq and other countries, fleeing violence and poverty.<\/p>\n

\"_85527923_028717330\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“The millions who are fleeing their homes, that’s not just about Daesh,” said Gen Allen, using an Arabic name for IS.<\/p>\n

“It’s also about the conditions in the region, the horrendous conditions that are a direct result of Bashar al-Assad and several years of the civil war.”
\n‘Heart-wrenching scenes’
\nAsked if he felt responsible for those fleeing to Europe, he said: “I feel that we can help them. We have worked very hard to help in the humanitarian crisis in that region.”<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to solve the conflict though. The conflict has got to be solved at a political level and a global level.”<\/p>\n

“We are going to see that the manifestation of that conflict will play out in a number of ways – right now it is playing out in this heart-wrenching vision of the people who are streaming out of the region.”<\/p>\n

Gen Allen described IS as a “manifestation of an absence of hope for so many people”.<\/p>\n

“This instability has been created by Bashar al-Assad and that regime. He ultimately chose to make war on his own people. That ultimately created the crisis that we face today.<\/p>\n

“So it’s not just about dealing with Daesh, it’s about creating the conditions that can put us on track for a political diplomatic solution as well.”<\/p>\n

He added: “Bashar al-Assad has got to go. He is both a point and a representation of what has caused so much instability in the region and so many people to want to fight, to fight him and to fight each other.”<\/p>\n

He said IS was being pushed back on several fronts and progress had also been made on a political level in Iraq.<\/p>\n

“Where we are today compared to where we were a year ago is pretty dramatically different,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In the context of just governance alone in Iraq we are dealing with a real partner in Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. He’s come a very long way in the year that he’s been prime minister, farther certainly than he predecessor.”<\/p>\n

Last September, US President Barack Obama announced the formation of a broad international coalition to combat IS, which has seized large swathes of Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

Despite the coalition’s efforts, militants have made gains in some areas, including at Ramadi in Iraq and at Palmyra in Syria.<\/p>\n

Iraq’s government promised to retake Ramadi back in May, but so far it has only managed to encircle the city.<\/p>\n

However, Kurdish forces have forced IS back to a frontline about 50km (30 miles) from the city of Raqqa – the group’s de facto capital in Syria.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ending the conflict in Syria and Iraq is key to solving the migrant crisis facing Europe, a senior US official has told the BBC. Gen John Allen, special presidential envoy for the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group, said IS had to be defeated and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “had to go”. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":151304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-151302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/151304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}