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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Photo: AP
Washington: The US administration has sought to contain the fallout from a leaked "dissent memo" signed by dozens of American diplomats critical of its Syria policy, but showed no sign it was willing to consider military strikes against Syrian dictator President Bashar al-Assad.
Several US officials said that while the White House was prepared to hear the diplomats' dissenting viewpoint, it was not expected to spur any changes in President Barack Obama's approach to Syria in his final seven months in office.
Unlikely to go to war against Syrian regime: US President Barack Obama. Photo: AP
One senior official said that the test for whether these proposals for more aggressive action are given high-level consideration will be whether they "fall in line with our contention that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria."
The document - sent through the State Department's "dissent channel", a conduit for voicing contrary opinions meant to be confidential - underscored long-standing divisions and frustrations among Obama's aides over his response to Syria's five-year-old civil war.
Some observers have said it was a message to the diplomats' former boss Hillary Clinton - and a warning to Assad and the Russians - that career diplomats want President Barack Obama's successor to take a harder line against the dictator.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad waves before addressing the newly-elected parliament in Damascus, Syria. Photo: AP/Syrian Presidency Facebook
Former secretary of state and now Democrat presumptive nominee for president, Ms Clinton already has signalled a preference for a more aggressive course in Syria than Mr Obama, including enforcement of a no-fly zone to protect Syrian civilians.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has said he would order more aggressive military action against the Islamic State but not Assad.
Mr Obama's Syria policy has been predicated on the goal of avoiding deeper military entanglements in the chaotic Middle East, and has been widely criticised as hesitant and risk-averse. His limited intervention has focused on fighting the Islamic State militant group that controls a swathe of Syria and Iraq and which has inspired attacks on US soil.
A draft of the cable, signed by 51 State Department officers, calls for "targeted military strikes" against the Assad government - something Mr Obama has long opposed - to stop its persistent violations of a ceasefire with US-backed anti-government rebels that is largely ignored by Syria and its Russian supporters.
The document, initially crafted in secret by a small group before their State Department bosses were made aware, was intended to "spark internal discourse" toward a policy shift but was not meant to be made public, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The signatories, mostly rank-and-file diplomats who had worked on Syria policy, may have put their careers at risk, current and former officials said. But State Department spokesman John Kirby insisted there would be no reprisals.
Mr Obama's critics quickly seized upon the letter, which also calls for a political transition that would usher Mr Assad out.
"Even President Obama's own State Department believes the administration's Syria policy is failing," said Ed Royce, Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee. "Iran, Russia and Assad call the shots in Syria, ignoring the ceasefire and allowing Assad to continue war crimes against his own people."
In what other officials called an attempt to limit any damage to Mr Obama's policies, one senior U.S. official stressed that it is only natural that "on a subject as complex and complicated as Syria that we have a diversity of views."
White House spokeswoman Jen Friedman said Mr Obama was open to a "robust discussion" on Syria but insisted that deliberations by Obama's aides have already looked closely at a range of options.
A former senior U.S. official said disclosure of a document of this type - the final version of which is classified - "corrodes the trust between the president and those who serve him." But those who signed have no plans to resign, the source familiar with the matter said.
Aides also have acknowledged privately that even if Mr Obama did decide to take a more aggressive stance, that would be much riskier now that Russian forces are directly supporting their ally Assad and bombing anti-government rebels.
In the meantime, Mr Assad's position has strengthened.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had only seen media reports about the memo, but asserted: "Calls for the violent overthrow of authorities in another country are unlikely to be accepted in Moscow."
When asked about the leaked memo during a visit to Washington, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir told reporters: "We have been arguing from the beginning of the Syrian crisis that there should be more robust intervention in Syria."
Reuters, Bloomberg