© Reuters/SANASyrian President Bashar Assad
"We see the reason that I think eventually Assad will have to be managed out of power," Mattis said on Tuesday. "I don't think any election run under the offices of the Syrian regime is going to have any credibility with the Syrian people or with the international community."
The United States is committed to supporting local forces in Syria and finding the settlement through the Geneva process, Mattis added.
© Joshua Roberts/ReutersUS Secretary of Defense James Mattis
Russia has repeatedly stated that the fate of the incumbent Syrian leader should be decided by the Syrian people exclusively. At the same time, many Western officials, particularly US ones, insisted on Assad's resignation, calling it the main precondition for the Syrian settlement.
In mid-September, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced that the German government could not imagine a long-term political solution with Assad remaining in power. However, Maas did not call the withdrawal of Assad a mandatory prerequisite for Germany's participation in the reconstruction of the country.
Earlier this year, James Mattis said at at a NATO defense minister meeting in Brussels that a US withdrawal from Syria would depend on the success of UN-brokered Geneva peace talks.
Mattis also claimed that a US withdrawal from Syria would create a "vacuum" that President Bashar Assad and his allies would "take advantage of".
Comment: Mattis' "vacuum" that he is so worried about is actually Syria reclaiming the territory that rightfully belongs to the country. By propping up the Kurdish SDF in their sham offensive against a miniscule pocket of ISIS in southeastern Deir Ezzor, the US maintains control of Syria's richest oil and gas fields. Which was always the point, with the added bonus of having a strategic drop on Iran.
- The one-third of Syria illegally occupied by US and proxy forces contain most of its oil, water and gas
- The Syria Endgame: Strategic Stage in the Pentagon's Covert War on Iran
However, at this point in time it seems the only way Assad will be 'managed out of power' is when he chooses to retire. Those who've tried to force him out by various means have not fared well.