Western contributions in Syria will remain limited to humanitarian efforts, diplomats said, stressing that there won’t be further aid unless Syria goes through political transition and holds elections resulting in regime change. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the Western diplomats also expressed strong belief in Iran’s influence having a greater toll than that of Russia’s on Bashar Assad. Western countries “will not contribute to supporting infrastructure reconstruction and long-term development in Syria, unless it sees regime change and the formation of a pluralistic government,” a Western diplomat said. The diplomat referred to vital humanitarian assistance currently being provided by European countries to neighboring states hosting displaced Syrian refugees such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.  Not to mention the fact that Western countries strongly support humanitarian organizations’ work inside Syria, such as the White Helmets, officially known as the Syria Civil Defense. He stressed that “advancing the political process led by the United Nations, (known as the Geneva process) and mediated by Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, could lead to the desired goal.” Another Western diplomat said there will be no ‘Marshall Plan’ for Syria in the absence of a political settlement, adding that Western countries will not pay Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan for Syria.  The Marshall Plan, officially called the European Recovery Program, was a US plan for rebuilding the allied countries of Europe after World War II. The diplomat compared the destruction that struck Raqqa as opposed to the size of that which impacted Aleppo, where “there is an important Christian minority.”  “We don’t buy into what is said about Assad being the protector of minorities in Syria,” he said.  Aleppo, which has an important Christian minority, has been destroyed.  “Russias influence on Assad is not the way it used to be,” he added. “Irans influence on Assad seems to be greater than Russian influence,” he judged.  Speaking on the Syrian regime’s violation of humanitarian law, the diplomat said that Assad systematically destroyed his country, city after city, suppressing protests and oppressing demonstrators in brutal ways. “Western countries are acting on a purely humanitarian basis, he explained. “We do not want to contribute to the building of cities governed by a person who was responsible for their destruction in the first place.” “The Assad regime is not constructively engaged in the Geneva talks,” he added. The diplomat commented on the possibility of a breakthrough in the Syrian crisis, comparing what is taking place in Syria to the massacres committed during Yugoslavia’s breakup in the 1990s. Despite the destruction caused by ISIS, especially for western neighborhoods in the Iraqi city of Mosul, there is great hope beginning to appear with Arab-Kurdish reconstruction efforts, even after the referendum in Kurdistan.  This has also happened before in countries which have witnessed atrocities such as Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Seeing no near end in sight to the Syria crisis, the diplomat highlighted the many tricks played by Russians and the possibility of these games lasting longer. “We have to wait a bit to see if the dust of the fighting will break, and whether a political process will emerge again in Geneva,” he said.