The State Department on Monday defended its claim from last week that “bringing peace [and] security to Syria” is one of its major achievements of 2015, but also clarified that statement to say its work isn’t done.
State’s year-end review of 2015 claimed several diplomatic victories, including “bringing peace, security to Syria,” one that had some scratching their heads given the ongoing civil war there, the presence of the Islamic State, and an ongoing fight between U.S. and Russia over how to end the civil war.
But Monday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said nothing in the 2015 review claimed that the U.S. has fully declared victory.
“The operative word there is ‘bringing,’ not brought,” Toner told reporters.
“So we’re bringing peace and security to Syria, I think that is a truthful claim,” he added. “There has been significant process, we believe, in the past year, on both fronts.”
When asked to clarify if he meant progress or process, Toner said “both.”
“I mean, I think progress on a process,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would say that we are there, or across the finish line. If that was conveyed in anyway, that’s a mistaken impression.”
The Obama administration has touted its international agreement that calls for toward a democratic election in Syria by 2017, a process the U.S. hopes can start next month. But he said progress in other areas has been made as well.
“Three months ago the Syrian opposition was not unified around a common set of negotiating principles, and now they are,” he said. “Three months ago, the international community was not unified around a common understanding of what a successful political process or transition could look like, now they are.”
“And three months ago, there was no U.N. Security Council … consensus … on Syria, much less a mandate to create, implement and monitor a ceasefire, and now there is,” he added.
“We would cite all of those as progress,” he said. “We’re not there yet, we recognize that. But we do believe that through a lot of our diplomatic spadework that we have made progress.”
