In order to limit violence in Syria and explore ways to encourage a military coup, former and current US officials have revealed that the United States made secret calls with members of President Bashar Assad’s government at the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

American intelligence officials identified army officers belonging to Assad’s minority Alawite sect who could lead a coup, but found few weak spots to exploit, Wall Street Journal said.

A former senior administration official was quoted as saying, “The White House’s policy in 2011 was to get to the point of a transition in Syria by finding cracks in the regime and offering incentives for people to abandon Assad”.
Syria’s regime meanwhile said it was ready to take part in new talks in Geneva next month, aimed at ending the war but appeared to make its participation conditional on which opposition groups will attend.

During an official visit to China Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that Damascus is ready to participate in Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva without foreign interference.

In addition, a member of the Opposing Syrian Coalition George Sabra told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new Syrian regime’s position comes within the framework of deception as the system and its allies are used to it. He added that the evidence for their deception is that they participated in Geneva 2 Conference on the basis of agreeing on the terms of Geneva 1, yet they failed to carry out its resolutions with the recognition of the former UN envoy to Syria Al-Akhdar al-Ibrahimi.