Ghalioun: Geneva Negotiations Suspended as Assad Regime Evades Implementation of UNSC Resolution on Humanitarian Aid

Dr. Burhan Ghalioun, member of the Syrian Coalition, said that “the Geneva talk are suspended until the Assad regime completely changes its position and agrees to engage in serious negotiations based on the formation of a transitional governing body with full executive powers.” Ghalioun also said that “there is no point in any negotiations if they are not intended to achieve a political transition,” pointing out that the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi suggested that the negotiations have not yet really begun due to the practices of the delegation of the Assad regime. Ghalioun stresses that the Assad regime is trying to wriggle out of its commitment to the UN Security Council that demands the entry of relief aid to the besieged areas. The Assad regime also violates humanitarian law through the adoption of the war of starvation and dropping of barrel bombs on civilian neighborhoods. The implementation of the latest UNSC resolution does not affect the sovereignty of Syria as claimed by the Assad regime.” Moreover, Ghalioun holds the UN Secretary General and member of the Security Council responsible for urgently investigating Assad’s delay in the implementation of the UNSC resolution. He also said that “we reject the United Nations waiting thirty days before meeting to determine the extent of the regime’s commitment to the implementation of the resolution. The international community must move within a week to uphold new measures and to ask why the Assad is delaying the implementation of the UNSC resolution.” Moreover, Ghalioun said that the statements of Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who called on his U.S. counterpart, John Kerry, to work with the Syrian opposition in order to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the needy people, is “an attempt to divert attention from the regime’s crimes and a means to defend it, and a trick to equalize between the regime and the opposition. The Syrian people have been bombed and besieged by the Assad regime, not the opposition, as was confirmed by the UNSC resolution.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)