![British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in London, UK on 6 June 2014 [NHS Confederation/Flickr]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2014_6-6-Jeremy-Hunt14171731710_ff2df4d112_o.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
![Attacks against 4 hospitals in Idlib, have left more than 40,000 people without healthcare in a conflict zone - Cartoon [Sarwar Ahmed/MiddleEastMonitor]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/12705463_10153958088406926_8469052368718199279_n.png?resize=218%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Attacks against 4 hospitals in Idlib, have left more than 40,000 people without healthcare in a conflict zone – Cartoon [Sarwar Ahmed/MiddleEastMonitor]
British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will remain in place for "a while" thanks to support from Russia, even though Britain's position was still that he remains a block to lasting peace, reports Reuters.
Hunt told Sky News:
The British long-standing position is that we won't have lasting peace in Syria with that (Assad-led) regime, but regretfully, we do think he's going to be around for a while.
Nearly eight years into a war that has displaced millions of Syrians, Assad has recovered control of most of the country with support from Russia, Iran, and Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.
OPINION: Justifications for tyranny
Last week, the United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus, marking a diplomatic boost for Assad from a US-allied Arab state that once backed rebels fighting him.
Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.
Spotted an error on this page? Let us know
