President Khoja calls on the Friends of the Syrian people and the United States to put an end to the Iranian intervention in Syria, which amounted to direct military occupation, describing the United States’ position as “indifferent,” and the position of the Friends of the Syrian people as just “watching,” during an interview with the Qatari Al-Watan newspaper.
“Negotiations are underway between the US and Iran to find a settlement to Iran’s nuclear file, and the Assad regime is conceivably part of Tehran’s package of understandings with the United States. Iran is now occupying Syria, and all the Assad regime’s military operations are being supervised by Qassem Soleimani who previously played the same role in Iraq, an involvement that was coordinated, or at least approved by the United States,” Khoja added.
“Iran is drawing its militias from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and some middle Asian countries to fight alongside the Assad regime. Although this constitutes a blatant military occupation and violation of Syria’s sovereignty, the special UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura described the intervention of these militias as legitimate.”
Khoja stresses that “the Friends of the Syrian people, particularly the United States should put an end for this intervention,” adding that “keeping Assad in power must not be part of the settlement to Iran’s nuclear file.”
He expresses astonishment at “the UN envoy Staffan de Mistura’s focus on Aleppo while the Iranian militias led by Gen. Qassem Soleimani continue to wage brutal military campaigns on the rebel-held areas in Dara’a in the south, and while Assad’s air force continues to carpet bomb Douma in Eastern Ghouta. Therefore, we believe that focusing on a specific area, namely Aleppo, while ignoring the rest of Syria, is a simplification of what is happening in Syria.”
Khoja points out that “if de Mistura wants to keep his mission as a mediator, he should maintain balanced relations between the Syrian Coalition and the Assad regime.”
Moreover, Khoja stresses that “Assad is not just part of the problem, he is the problem itself, and if he steps aside or be removed, half of the problem will be solved. The Assad regime deliberately destroys Syria’s infrastructure, health institutions, mosques, churches, colleges, and schools.
Khoja concluded his remarks stressing the need to fight the root cause of terrorism, which is the Assad regime and its allied militias. The Assad regime’s state terrorism far surpasses that of ISIS, and the latest statistics confirm that the victims of ISIS do not exceed 5,000 people, while the regime’s victims exceeds 300,000 people. Moreover, if ISIS’s notorious crimes are slaughtering and burning of their victims in dozens, the Assad regime and the paramilitary militias fighting alongside it, known as the shabiha, have been slaughtering and burning people in the thousands, using barrel bombs and chemical weapons. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
