The political process aimed at solving the decadelong war in Syria is just a tool to waste time for the Bashar Assad regime until it can impose itself on the international stage again, Nasr al-Hariri, president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), stated Saturday.
Speaking to Daily Sabah after the fifth round of Syria Constitutional Committee talks, held under the auspices of the United Nations, that ended Friday following a week of negotiations, al-Hariri said: “The talks were not going well at any stage. The regime has not taken any serious step toward the political solution at all."
“The international community must assume its responsibilities toward the regime and toward the regime's crimes, including the displacement of 10 million Syrian citizens, killing about 1 million, arresting and torturing hundreds of thousands, and above all, the use of chemical weapons,” he underlined.
Talks on a new constitution for Syria hit a brick wall this week, with the U.N. mediator concluding Friday: "We can't continue like this."
The fifth round of discussions between 15 representatives each from Bashar Assad's regime, the opposition and civil society, staged all week at the U.N. in Geneva, concluded with little to no progress.
Pedersen hinted the Syrian regime delegation was to blame for the lack of progress. The U.N. envoy said he presented a proposal to the heads of the government and opposition delegations, adding that his proposal was rejected by the regime team and accepted by the opposition.
“This week has been a disappointment,” Pedersen said. “I set out a few things I thought we should be able to achieve before we started this meeting and I’m afraid we did not manage to achieve these things.”
Last week in Geneva the talks held its fifth session since October 2019.
“The regime constantly hinders any progress in the political process, and it wants a marginal political negotiation process that continues forever without any horizon and without achieving any progress nor contributing to any solution,” al-Hariri pointed out.
He stressed that the opposition wants practical steps on all tracks, a stop to the killings, an end to prosecutions, arrests as well as a mechanism for a political transition including the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2254 and the Geneva Communique.
Al-Hariri said that the regime is holding the process for “minor things and formal details for the purpose of obstruction and disruption.”
The tentative discussions are aimed at rewriting the war-torn country's constitution. It is hoped the talks could pave the way toward a broader political process.
The head of the Syrian opposition called on the international community, which has fallen short to end the yearslong crisis and suffering of the Syrian people, saying: “What exactly are the limits of criminality that the regime must exceed so the international community moves decisively and finally? How much blood should be shed? And how many years or decades this killing and destruction must continue before the international community says ‘enough?'”
After nearly 10 years of war, Syria is in the throes of a deep economic crisis amid a collapsing currency and skyrocketing inflation. However, fighting has largely ceased and Assad has taken back control of a large part of the country thanks to strong Russian and Iranian military backing, while the other parts of the country have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups, especially in the northeast.
The international community has all the necessary legal mechanisms for a decisive intervention, or at least to pressure the regime to move toward the political process that guarantees a political transition and an implementation of international resolutions, al-Hariri added.
“This regime has not made any concessions since its coup against power in 1963 except under the direct, serious and real threat of the use of force,” al-Hariri continued, referring to the date of a coup that brought Assad’s Baath Party to power.
Giving the example of Turkey, al-Hariri said: “Almost 22 years ago, when the regime did not acquiesce and did not stop supporting terrorists, Turkey directly threatened (Syria's former President) Hafez Assad and moved its troops to the borders threatening a military operation.”
“As a result, the regime submitted and signed the Adana agreement without negotiating while (jailed PKK leader Abdullah) Öcalan was expelled,” he stated.
The Adana agreement, which defused tension that brought the two nations to the brink of war, was signed between Turkey and Syria in 1998. It stated that Syria would not allow any PKK activities within its borders and would block any terrorist activities that would threaten Turkey's sovereignty.
“Similarly, today, the regime will not submit to the international community’s will without such a threat,” al-Hariri said.
Al-Hariri reiterated that an April 2020 report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had said Syrian regime air force pilots flying Sukhoi Su-22 planes and a helicopter had dropped bombs containing toxic chlorine and sarin nerve gas on the village of Latameneh in the Hama region in March 2017.
He stressed that this report opened the door of authorization for the U.N. under international law to “use force or threaten to use it, and to bind the regime to the conditions of a political solution.”
Turkey is one of the very few countries that stood by the Syrian people and their rights in principle, al-Hariri highlighted, saying that thanks to Ankara’s support to the Syrian National Army (SNA) and Operations Spring Shield “Russian intervention reached a dead end.”
“We feel limitless gratitude toward the Turkish government and people,” he said.
“Our victory in the political battle depends on our success in presenting ourselves as an institutional body that successfully manages its affairs and the affairs of the liberated areas, and to assume these responsibilities directly,” al-Hariri stated.
He elaborated that the administrative, security, economic and service responsibilities of liberated areas needed to be under the roof of the administration of the Interim Government “completely and exclusively.”
Saying that Turkish support and that of other countries is welcomed in this regard, al-Hariri said that this would “contribute to strengthening the position of the Syrian people and the forces that represent them at the political solution table.”
