According to a top US ambassador, Myanmar’s military is unlikely to be able to overcome the insurgents battling its authority and should restore democracy after seizing power last year.

“It’s hard to see today how they could realistically think they can win,” said Derek Chollet, the State Department counsellor. “They’re losing territory. Their military is taking serious losses.”

Chollet told Reuters and another journalist in Bangkok on Friday that the military administration is becoming isolated not just abroad but also at home, and that the struggle should cease and democracy be restored.

The junta deposed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021 and has since employed lethal force and widespread arrests to quell protests.

Civilians have picked up guns to attack police and troops in response to a call for a people’s uprising issued by an alliance of lightly armed rebels. The junta has labeled the coalition as “terrorists.”

On Sunday, a military official did not return calls seeking comment on Chollet’s statements.

The ambassador is in Thailand, Singapore, and Brunei to follow up on a meeting between the US and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last month (ASEAN).

In addition to applying sanctions, Washington is collaborating with ASEAN and nations such as Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia on Myanmar, according to Chollet.

He hoped that China might be “part of the solution” in Myanmar.