"QUESTION: -- over the last many months was, one, that Assad wasn’t fighting Daesh properly and that he was mainly fighting the Syrian – moderate Syrian opposition --
MR TONER: And that’s true.
QUESTION: -- and that carried over to what the Russians were doing as well.
MR TONER: And that’s true.
QUESTION: So now that they seem to be doing some of that. Shouldn’t that be lauded, in your estimation? And then the second thing --
MR TONER: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- was that – well, you can answer the first thing --
MR TONER: Okay.
QUESTION: -- while I remember the second.
MR TONER: So I’m not going to laud it, and I’m not going to laud it because it’s important to remember that one of the reasons Daesh is in Syria is because Assad’s brutal crackdown on his own people created the kind of vacuum, if you will, that has allowed a group like ISIL or Daesh to flourish. Just because he’s now, given the cessation of hostilities, willing and/or able to divert his forces to take on Daesh doesn’t exonerate him or his regime from the gross abuses that they’ve carried out against the Syrian people.
Again, it is a – it reflects, I think, the complex state of affairs that is Syria today, and it’s why we need a political transition away from Assad to a transitional government that’s supported by all the Syrian people, because we do have to deal with Daesh. So at the same time we support any effort to destroy or dismantle Daesh, I think we have to keep our eyes on the longer-term goal, which is a peaceful transition and political future for the people in Syria."
