From what has came out from the tripartite meeting in Geneva between the Russians, the Americans and the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Friday, January 11, it is clear that the refusal of the United States to recognize the failure of the war they launched against Syria and its president Bashar al-Assad is a major obstacle that prevents a political solution to the crisis.

Washington has sabotaged all initiatives by refusing to engage through the Security Council and to stop arming and financing armed groups in Syria. The US managed the war in Syria, set up operating rooms in Turkey whose members are CIA agents responsible for coordinating international and regional efforts to mobilize terrorists around the world to send to Syria. US officials publicly boast of providing modern communication equipment to armed gangs, and expressed no regret after acknowledging that much of this equipment has fallen into the hands of al-Qaida fighters of al-Nusra Front, an organization they lately put on their terrorist list, on which they could include other groups shortly.

As clear commitments to stop military and financial support to terrorist groups are not officially taken in the Geneva meetings, it means the US administration is determined to continue the war of attrition against Syria in coming months. The United States, unable to bear the human and material losses in a direct confrontation, knows that the Syrian national state which has shown remarkable strength throughout the war will be even more determined to preserve its political independence after the end of fighting. That is why Washington links stopping the war to the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. If he is to be ousted in the current circumstances, it will open the way to new balances which may put the Syrian army and people away from a truly independent Syria.

Lakhdar Brahimi's comments are below the level of debate, because the international envoy has long been the spokesman for the United States and the West. On the other hand, the strong position of Russia, supported by the BRICS countries, especially China and Iran, is motivated by the reality that Syria is the first line of defense for all independent forces that oppose unilateral US hegemony. Assad is the symbol of this reality. Asking for his resignation is like demanding the departure of Fidel Castro in Cuba of the 1960s.

Bashar al-Assad has the support of a large majority of Syrians, who see in him the hope of a better future. Close allies know that the Syrian president bases all decisions on Syrian national interest, and no power on earth can force a leader supported by his people to change his decisions. The true friends of Syria are well aware that the battle has now surpassed reforms, although they are important. These reforms have indeed become, after the last speech by Assad, the work program of the government. In fact, the challenge is about the existence of Syria as a free, sovereign and independent, state, active and influential in its geopolitical environment.

Sooner or later, Washington will fail and Assad will proclaim victory in the most ferocious war ever launched against a country in modern history. The statements of Brahimi after the last meeting in Geneva, that the solution must be political in Syria, is a recognition of the strength of the Syrian state.

The author is a journalist