Bahra: De Mistura’s Ceasefire Plan Should Include a Comprehensive Political Settlement to the Conflict

President of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, Hadi al Bahra, chaired a meeting today in Brussels with senior representatives of EU Member States to discuss the crisis in Syria. President al Bahra set out the opposition’s efforts to deliver, in partnership with the international community, a comprehensive plan of action that: defeats extremist groups, such as ISIL; removes the root cause of extremism – the Assad regime; and establishes moderate governance structures on the ground to ensure that there can be no resurgence of ISIS’s terror or Assad’s tyranny. President al Bahra reiterated the Syrian National Coalition’s commitment to a political transition agreed by mutual consent, based on Geneva communique as the only sustainable solution to end the crisis. The President stressed that he was engaging constructively with UN Envoy, Staffan de Mistura. But it was important to ensure that de Mistura’s plans avoided the risk that the Assad regime would misuse them to make military gains and further terrorize the civilian population. President al Bahra thanked EU Member States for their leading role on humanitarian relief. The President asked the EU to use its collective weight to ensure the delivery of aid at scale across Syria’s borders: UN Security Council resolution 2165 was not being implemented, to the detriment of Syria’s civilian population. The President also thanked EU Member States for their efforts to put the Assad regime under pressure through sanctions. He urged Member States to implement further sanctions aimed at weakening the regime’s military, and disrupting the supply of funding and weapons from its backers – Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. (Source: Syrian Coalition)