The United States warned Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday that the Biden administration will not recognize the result of its upcoming presidential election unless the voting is free, fair, supervised by the United Nation and represents all of Syrian society.
The acting U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, said that it is clear that the regime will leverage the upcoming presidential elections in May to unfairly claim Assads legitimacy.
Stressing that the Biden administration’s opposition to elections that aren’t free, fair, representative and U.N.-supervised, DeLaurentis echoed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in saying that a credible political settlement cannot wait.
He spoke at an event marking 10 years of conflict in Syria organized by the Syrian National Coalition, which represents groups opposed to Assad.
In October, the United States and several Western allies accused the Syrian government of deliberately delaying the drafting of…