In speeches delivered during the UN General Assembly meeting in New York yesterday, many world leaders stressed that Bashar al-Assad has no role in the transitional period or in Syria’s future.
US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu and the Emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad all agreed on excluding Assad from Syria’s future.
US President Barack Obama said that “Assad and his allies cannot simply pacify the broad majority of a population who have been brutalized by chemical weapons and indiscriminate bombing. Yes, realism dictates that compromise will be required to end the fighting and ultimately stamp out ISIL. But realism also requires a managed transition away from Assad and to a new leader, and an inclusive government that recognizes there must be an end to this chaos so that the Syrian people can begin to rebuild.”
Describing Assad as a tyrant who drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent children, President Obama added that “when a dictator slaughters tens of thousands of his own people, that is not just a matter of one nation’s internal affairs — it breeds human suffering on an order of magnitude that affects us all… We must recognize that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the pre-war status quo.”
French President Francois also said that “France believes that Syria’s future cannot involve Bashar al-Assad.”
Moreover, Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that “Assad is the main responsible person for all this humanitarian tragedies in Syria and around Syria. He used barrel bombs. He used chemical weapons and these are all war crimes against humanity. So there cannot be any solution with his presence. And he just controls around 14 percent of the country. A fragile state was created by him. There is a need of a transition by all the parties and of course, there cannot be any legitimacy for any presence of terrorist group as well as regime committing war crimes.”
He also said that “there is a need of a new attempt for Geneva II talks to be revived and a transitional process is needed without Assad and without terrorist groups in Syria.”
On September 27, the Syrian Coalition’s political committee met with representatives of the rebel factions operating in Syria to discuss the latest political developments. They emphasize rejection of any presence of Bashar al-Assad in the transitional period or in Syria’s future as well as of all attempts to re-market the Assad regime which caused the death of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, destroyed their cities and infrastructure, and forced millions out of their homes.
In a statement released following the meeting, the two sides stated that the Russian military build-up in Syria to protect Bashar al-Assad from falling does not serve a political solution, stressing that Russia has never been a mediator in the conflict but a partner to the regime. They also stress this military presence will further complicate the situation in Syria and exacerbate the suffering, murder and the destruction in Syria. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
