David Pollock was the Bernstein Fellow at The Washington Institute from 2007 until his death in 2024, focusing on regional political dynamics and related issues.
David Pollock discussed Saturday's emergency meeting in Geneva on the crisis in Syria on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.
As representatives of major Western powers conferred in Geneva Saturday to debate next steps for the crisis in Syria, Institute Kaufman fellow and Arab politics expert David Pollock discussed the issues with viewers on C-SPAN's Washington Journal. On the key question of Moscow's support for Bashar al-Assad's government, Pollock said recent unofficial moves offer hope that Russia's strategy may be evolving, but how far and how quickly Moscow is willing to move remain unknown. With his international allies now reduced to Iran and a potentially faltering Russia, Pollock said that Assad likely sees the conflict as a literal fight to the death.
Pollock offered a positive assessment of UN special envoy Kofi Annan's most recent proposal for ending the Syrian conflict. "His latest proposal really is a step forward," Pollock said. "He is presenting a plan now not just for a ceasefire, not just for a dialogue between Assad and his opponents, but for a new Syrian government that would include the opposition and probably exclude Assad, the dictator of Syria today. So for Kofi Annan, I think this is a pretty bold step forward, and I hope it succeeds."
