17 June 2016•Update: 18 June 2016
WASHINGTON
Fifty-one State Department officials have signed an internal memo calling for the U.S. to take military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a bid to force regime change in the country.
Signed by officials working on U.S. Syria policy, the "dissent channel cable" makes repeated references to "targeted military strikes" against the Damascus government, according to multiple reports published on Thursday.
“Failure to stem Assad’s flagrant abuses will only bolster the ideological appeal of groups such as Daesh, even as they endure tactical setbacks on the battlefield,” the cable reads, the New York Times said.
“The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable,” it said. “The status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges.”
President Barack Obama has refrained from taking military action due to concerns that it could ignite a conflict with Russia and lead to greater instability in the war-ravaged nation.
Assad has been buoyed by his allies, with Russia carrying out airstrikes in the country that have assisted his advances since September and, Iranian forces and Hezbollah fighting alongside Assad's Syrian Arab Army on the ground.
In a sign of Assad's growing confidence, he vowed last week to retake "every inch" of Syrian territory from his enemies.
The Wall Street Journal said the complaints being lodged by State Department officials are not unusual, but the number of signatories opposing U.S. policy is, according to current and former State Department officials.
“It’s embarrassing for the administration to have so many rank-and-file members break on Syria,” a former State Department official who worked on Middle East policy said, according to the Journal.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has vowed to be more hawkish on Syria than Obama and the document may be an attempt to inform the policy of the next president, the Journal said.
