Muhammad Yahya Maktabi, a member of the political committee of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), has emphasized that the assailant behind the Ghouta Massacre, which claimed the lives of 1,400 civilians, remains at large. He considers this situation a perilous and erroneous signal from the international community to the tyrannical and oppressive Assad regime, as well as to the Syrian people who endured this atrocity. It communicates the distressing notion that an unlimited array of crimes can be committed with impunity.
In an interview with Arabi 21 newspaper, Maktabi said that the regime’s ongoing immunity, despite its perpetration of numerous massacres in preceding years, is a misguided message. It seemingly gives the regime a nod to persist in further criminal actions and massacres.
Furthermore, Maktabi underscored the danger inherent in this message, as it creates fertile ground for extremist rhetoric and terrorism to manipulate the collective psyche. It conveys the idea that the international community’s proclamations concerning justice, criminal trials, and human rights are vacuous, devoid of real significance. Consequently, it suggests that violence and chaos are the only feasible solutions.
Maktabi stressed that the imperative today lies in steering the international community back to the path that leads to the implementation of international resolutions, thus enabling a political transition in Syria. Simultaneously, there should exist a parallel avenue for transitional justice, ensuring that criminals face impartial trials. This process would ultimately facilitate the voluntary return of Syrian refugees to a secure and neutral environment.
Maktabi indicated that achieving these objectives necessitates exerting pressure on the Assad regime, and considering the employment of Article 7 of Resolution 2118 to enforce UN resolutions. He highlighted that without such measures, the Assad regime will continue its manipulative practices, deceit, time-wasting tactics, and the unlawful export of Captagon. It will persist in championing its long-standing slogan coined since the revolution’s inception: “Assad or we burn the country.”
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
