Syria to West: Accept that Assad is here to stay

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - Syria@@@s envoy to the United Nations says it@@@s time for the United States and other Western powers to accept that President Bashar al-Assad is here to stay, and to abandon what he suggested was a failed strategy of trying to split the Middle East into sectarian enclaves.
Speaking to Reuters on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Syrian war, Assad@@@s long-serving U.N. ambassador Bashar Ja@@@afari said his president was ready to work with the United States and others to combat terrorism in the Middle East.
"We don@@@t want any vacuum in the country that would create chaos such as happened in Libya and Iraq and ... Afghanistan," he said. "President Assad can deliver because he is a strong president. He rules over a strong institution, which is the Syrian army. He has resisted pressure for four years."
"He is the man who can deliver any solution," he added.
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