President of the Syrian Coalition Anas Abdah and an accompanying delegation met with officials in the Geneva Center for Security Policy and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Swiss capital of Geneva on Monday.
The meeting came during an official visit to Switzerland that is due to last for two days. Abdah will also meet with the Swiss State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Yves Rossier and the UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura.
During a meeting with the Director of the Geneva Center for Security Policy, Ambassador Christian Dussey, Abdah gave an overview of the Syrian oppositions’ vision for a political solution in Syria. He reaffirmed the Syrian Coalition’s commitment to a political solution, stressing that the failure to achieve a political solution is attributed to the lack of seriousness on the part of the Assad regime and its insistence on pursuing a military solution with the support of its allies.
Abdah also blamed failure to achieve a political solution to the lack of sincere efforts by the international community as well as the spread of terrorism, especially the state terrorism being practiced by the regime and its allied foreign militias as well as the Al-Qaeda and ISIS extremist groups.
Abdah and Ambassador Dussey also discussed the Syrian Coalition’s efforts to encourage Syrian-Syrian dialogue and its efforts at the social and political levels, most notably its efforts to give Syrian women greater political and social roles as well as in the leadership and decision-making process.
Member of the Syrian Coalition Hawas Khalil, who is part of the delegation, said that the militias of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) are seeking to impose a de facto authority on other Kurdish parties. He stressed that the PYD policies risk widening the gap created by the Assad regime among the components of the Syrian society.
The Syrian Coalition’s delegation raised the issue of the mass forced displacement and demographic change operations being carried out by the Assad regime in many parts across Syria, especially in the Damascus suburbs during a meeting with the ICRC’s regional director for the Middle East Robert Mardini. The delegation presented a report detailing the situation in the besieged areas across Syria to Mardini. The report explains how the Assad regime uses hunger, in addition to the bombing of hospitals, public markets, and civilian homes, to force civilians to leave their homes.
The meeting with Mardini also discussed the role of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the delivery of aid to civilians in the regime-held areas. The Coalition’s delegation pointed out that the aid is usually distributed by the Assad regime and its militias.
For his part, Mardini reaffirmed the ICRC’s commitment to helping civilians trapped in the besieged areas, adding that the ICRC has so far made 48 visits to the besieged areas across Syria. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office)
