US failed to achieve tangible results in Syria, says former official

 Jeffrey Feltman

01 Feb 2021; MEMO: Former US and UN official Jeffrey Feltman has said that his country failed to achieve tangible results in Syria related to Washington's goals, RT reported on Sunday. Feltman attributed the US failure to the administrations of former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

The former UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and US Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs called for a new approach based on Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad taking "concrete, specific and transparent steps that cannot be reversed in the matter of political reform" in return for Washington easing sanctions.

Feltman also acknowledged that the economic siege imposed by the US on Lebanon came in the context of exerting pressure on Syria, Iran, and Russia to "bring them to the negotiations table."

He denied "rumours" that he would be the new US envoy for Syria. "I say, frankly, that no one has contacted me about that. I think that appointing an envoy to Syria is not a priority for the Biden administration." The new US president, added Feltman, has other priorities such as Russia, Iran, and support for allies in the region. "Syria is part of it."