NPR quotes Rafik Hariri Center Resident Senior Fellow Frederic C. Hof on the Obama administration’s effort to unite global leaders effort on Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad and the conflict in Syria:
KELEMEN: The way to avoid that, Hof says, is to ratchet up the pressure on the Assad regime to stop indiscriminate bombings and end the sieges on opposition strongholds.
HOF: If the international community of this Syria Support Group can’t tackle that upfront, if the Russians and Iranians are not willing to get their client out of this business, how likely is it that they’ll oblige their client to negotiate seriously? So I think putting civilian protection upfront is really the way to test whether or not we have anything here.