The Syrian National Coalition’s Representative to the Benelux and European Union Mouaffaq Nyrabia expressed disappointment at the performance of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition, describing them as simply “not working.”
“When they began one year ago, many Syrians, including myself, thought they would be a step towards ending the horrors in Syria. We thought they would root out ISIS. We thought they would bring an end to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brutality,” he said.
“But today ISIS continues to win new ground across Syria while Assad’s forces continue to brutally murder civilians. If the U.S. and its allies don’t correct course soon, there is a risk that only a costly and deadly full-scale military intervention will defeat ISIS,” he added.
Nyrabia stresses that “a no-fly zone would suffocate a central ISIS recruitment narrative by showing that the West is interested in protecting Syrians. It would effectively eliminate the use of barrel bombs and could thereby change Assad’s military calculations so that he is forced into real negotiations on the political transition to which the international community — including Russia — has agreed. A no-fly zone could bring all this. Even the mere threat of a no-fly zone could be enough to move the Syrian crisis towards a political solution.”
“The U.S.-led coalition is too narrowly focused on an ISIS-only strategy. Assad’s brutality against his own people is used as a recruiting tool for ISIS, which some see as an alternative to or protection from Assad.”
He went on: “The refusal of the coalition to provide protection from Assad’s barrel bombs has led to more than 12,000 deaths since the introduction of this crude weapon. Assad is only encouraged to intensify the use of barrel bombs because he faces no consequences for his crimes. Syrians see no justice and no accountability. In a crisis that has seen more than a quarter of a million deaths and half the country displaced, this new form of brutality has Syrians on the ground pleading for a no-fly zone.”
“A no-fly zone would suffocate a central ISIS recruitment narrative by showing that the West is interested in protecting Syrians.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + The Huffington Post)
