The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is approaching collapse and should immediately take steps to begin talks on a political transition, Nato head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday.
“I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse ... it is only a question of time,” Rasmussen said, adding that Assad should “initiate a process to accomodate the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.”
Earlier on Thursday, a top Russian diplomat said that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is losing “more and more” control of Syria after 21 months of conflict and an opposition victory cannot be ruled out.
“As for preparing for victory by the opposition, this, of course, cannot be excluded,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted as saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
“You need to look the facts in the eyes – the government regime is losing more and more control over a large part of the country’s territory,” he said.
The RIA Novosti news agency also quoted Bogdanov as saying that the recent recognition of the opposition Syrian National Coalition by the United States – following similar moves by other states – had only emboldened the opposition.
“They (the rebels) are saying that victory is not far away, ‘let’s take Aleppo, let’s take Damascus’,” he said.