"I am very sure that we have very, very good grounds to be making these warnings," said Jim Jeffrey, who was named on Aug. 17 as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s special adviser on Syria overseeing talks on a political transition in that country.
"Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation," Jeffrey told a few reporters in his first interview on the situation in Syria since his appointment. "There is lots of evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared."
The White House has warned that the United States and its allies would respond "swiftly and vigorously" if Assad militias used chemical weapons in the widely expected offensive.
Jeffrey said an attack by Russian and Syrian militias, and the use of chemical weapons, would force huge refugee flows into southeastern Turkey or areas in Syria under Turkish control.
Bashar al-Assad has massed his militias and allies on the frontlines in the northwest, and Russian planes have joined his bombardment of opposition controlled areas there, in a prelude to a possible assault.
The fate of the insurgent stronghold in and around Idlib province rests on a meeting to be held in Tehran on Friday between the leaders of Assad’s supporters Russia and Iran, and the opposition ally, Turkey.
"We will find out to some degree tomorrow if the Russians are willing to come to a compromise with the Turks," Jeffrey said.
Jeffrey described the situation in Idlib as "very dangerous" and said Turkey was trying to avoid an all-out Syrian government offensive.
"I think the last chapter of the Idlib story has not been written. The Turks are trying to find a way out. The Turks have shown a great deal of resistance to an attack," he said.
He said the United States had repeatedly asked Russia whether it could "operate" in Idlib to eliminate the last holdouts of ISIS and other extremist groups. Asked whether that would include US air strikes, Jeffrey said: "That would be one way."
There was a "a new commitment" by the US administration to remain in Syria until ISIS militants were defeated, while ensuring Iran left the country, he added.
While President Donald Trump had signaled that he wanted US forces out of Syria, in April he agreed to keep troops there a little longer.
"We’re no longer pulling out by the end of the year, we’re going to stay in until we have an enduring defeat of ISIS," Jeffrey said. The other pillar of US policy was the complete withdrawal of all Iranian-commanded militias from Syrian territory, said the veteran diplomat, who was appointed last month.
Trump will chair a UN Security Council meeting on Iran during an annual gathering of world leaders in New York later this month. The meeting will focus on Iran’s nuclear program and its meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen.
France has invited the United States, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Britain for talks on the sidelines of the UN meeting to discuss Syria, Jeffrey said.
He said Assad "has no future as a ruler" in Syria, but it was not up to Washington to get rid of him and it would work with Moscow on a political transition.
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