Vice-president of the Syrian Coalition Muwaffaq Nyrabiya said that there is now no suitable climate for a political process in Syria as the Assad regime and its allies carry on with the slaughter of Syrian civilians.
According to the Syrian Coalition’s media office, at least 70 people, including 7 children and 4 women, were killed on Wednesday in attacks by the Assad regime and its allies in nearly 49 areas across Syria. The office, which relies on sources and activists inside Syria to gather information, said that these figures do not cover areas controlled by Alnusra Front or ISIS, which were excluded from the cessation of hostilities agreement declared in January 27 of this year.
Civil defense teams in the town of Douma in Rural Damascus said three civilians were killed in artillery shelling by regime forces on the rebel-held Damascus suburb on Wednesday. The attack also left many civilians injured, mostly children.
Nyrabiya pointed out that the continued silence over such attacks by the Assad regime and its allies has further complicated the conflict and allowed ISIS to grow and fester in Syria and the region. Main state actors, meanwhile, continue to shirk their responsibilities towards the tragedy unfolding in Syria, completely unmindful of the disastrous consequences of the continued violations of the cessation of hostilities agreement by the regime and its allies, Nyrabiya stressed.
Nyrabiya called upon the international community to break its silence and take real and urgent action against repeated violations of the truce agreement which stalled the political process. Such violations represent a continuation of the criminal policies the Assad regime and its allies have been employing against civilians for over five years, Nyrabiya added. By continuing the deliberate targeting of civilians, Nyrabiya noted, the Assad regime and its allies use civilians as a bargaining chip in the negotiations on Assad’s fate.
Meanwhile, the United Nations envoy to Syria said that the next round of the intra-Syrian talks must be well prepared “to ensure the possibility of moving forward with the decisive outcome of a political transition in August.”
“Bottom line, I’m still aiming – we are aiming at – within July, but not at any cost and not without guarantees,” Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, told the press at the conclusion of closed consultations with the Security Council in New York on Wednesday.
De Mistura continued that he was “aiming at August as the period where we should be seeing something concrete. So that in September we take stock.”
The UN envoy stressed the need for a political transition in Syria to win the battle against terrorism.
De Mistura added that the terrorist attacks in Istanbul should act as “a reminder to everyone in the Council that fighting terrorism is a priority and should be considered constantly a priority…However, winning – not only fighting – terrorism in Syria and Iraq too, but particularly in Syria, would require a political transition because that’s the way through which we take away the water from those who are swimming in the terrorist environment.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
