COURCELLES-SUR-MER, France – Bashar Assad’s days as president of Syria are numbered, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested Monday as the spectre of escalating conflict in the Middle East loomed large amid the lingering ghosts of two world wars.
The way forward in Syria can’t include Assad, whose recent chemical attack against his own people were abetted by those countries – Russia and Iran – that have allowed him to remain in power, Trudeau told a news conference.
“There is no question that anyone who is guilty of the types of war crimes against innocents, against children, that Assad and his regime are needs to be held to account,” he said during a visit to Juno Beach to commemorate Canada’s Second World War dead.
“We need to move as quickly as possible towards peace and stability in Syria that does not involve Bashar al-Assad.”
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Trudeau was, however, non-committal when it came to the question of how to remove Assad from power, and whether Russia should be punished for supporting him.
Canada remains open to imposing new sanctions against Russia in concert with its allies, Trudeau said, but Russia must also be part of the solution for bringing peace to Syria.
“Countries that have been supportive of the Assad regime bear some of the responsibility for the chemical attacks on innocents,” he said.
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“And those countries must also be part of the solution as we hold the Assad regime to account and as we move tangibly forward as an international community to ending this conflict in Syria.”
The remarks about one of the world’s current hot spots capped two days of overseas commemorations for Canadian soldiers killed in the two world wars.
On Sunday, Trudeau was on hand for commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, before flying to Juno to pay homage to Canada’s role in D-Day on June 6, 1944, during the Second World War.
It was at Juno that 14,000 Canadian soldiers came ashore under heavy machine-gun and artillery fire to establish a beachhead for the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany, of which 340 would die.
“The men who fought in 1944 were carrying the legacy of those who risked their lives at Vimy Ridge in 1917,” Trudeau said after walking the beach with his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and their son Xavier.
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But there was no escaping the here and now, with last week’s deadly chemical-weapons attack in Syria still fresh on everyone’s mind, and nuclear-armed North Korea engaged in a new round of sabre-rattling.
Trudeau said he’s spoken to his counterparts from France, the United Kingdom and Germany as well as U.S. President Donald Trump in recent days on how to deal with Syria.
The prime minister left no doubt that he considered Assad’s government responsible for last week’s chemical attack, which killed more than 80 people, including many children, in the Syrian province of Idlib.
Russia and Iran were also at least partly to blame, he added, because of their support for Assad’s murderous regime, which international observers believe has used chemical weapons dozens of times.
Asked whether he feared the world was on the verge of a new war, Trudeau said the international community needed to come together more now than ever and address its challenges together.
“The raging civil war in Syria, the violent conflicts around the world,” he said, “require an international community that pulls together, that holds each other to account and that strives everyday not to repeat the terrible mistakes of the past.”
Peace in Syria seems increasingly distant as the rhetoric between Washington, Damascus and Moscow continues to heat up.
The U.S. fired 59 cruise missiles against a Syrian airfield last week in retaliation for the chemical attack, sparking tough talk and warnings from all sides.
The United States is suggesting its true purpose was to send a political message: that long-term peace in Syria will require changes in government, and the countries backing Bashar Assad should stop.
“I think what you are going to see is pressure on the political solution. That’s really what’s going to happen,” said Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
“In no way do we look at peace happening in that area with Iranian influence. In no way do we see peace in that area with Russia covering up for Assad. In no way do we see peace in that area with Assad as the head of the Syrian government.”
She acknowledged the confusion in the wake of the strike, and suggested the ambiguity is intentional: “We’re going to keep all of our thoughts and plans close to the chest. This president is not going to go and release any sort of information.”
In weekend interviews, she and her colleagues said the U.S. has two overlapping goals in Syria: First, defeat the so-called Islamic State rebels. Then, in the longer run, establish a political solution with Syrian leadership that protects civilians:
“Clearly, Assad is not that person,” Haley said.
Yet it’s unclear the U.S.’s regional adversaries will ever agree – or how they might respond to any additional U.S. action.
A threat of retaliation reportedly came Monday from a coalition of Assad military allies including Russia and Iran. Various news reports said that coalition released a statement with a warning: “From now on we will respond to anyone, including America, if it attacks Syria and crosses the red lines.”
The statement reportedly said: “America knows very well our ability and capabilities to respond well to them.”
The Trump administration has also deployed an aircraft carrier group to the waters of North Korea, after the nuclear-armed hermit kingdom conducted several more missile tests in recent weeks.
Trudeau admitted to being worried about North Korea, which he labelled “dangerous and unstable,” and said the government was working with allies “to ameliorate and defuse the situation.”
– With files from Alexander Panetta in Washington
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