Saleh: Jaafari Has No Right to Talk about Patriotism

Khalid Saleh, Media Office president, criticized remarks made by Assad ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, who said that “dialogue should be established under the national roof, and we will try to make the other party negotiate as much as possible according to this premise.” Saleh said that these are blind statements and are unable to reconcile reality. They also reflects lack of seriousness to reach a political solution. The regime’s talk about a national roof for the negotiations is unrealistic, as who those who insists on considering the talk about Assad’s fate as a red line does not have the right to talk about patriotism.” Moreover, Saleh criticizes Jaafari’s statement that the Syrian Coalition’s decision is determined by foreign agendas. “The Assad regime officially announced today that it would attend the second round of negotiations at Geneva II, but this decision came five days after Russia’s announcement that the Assad regime would participate in the second round. This surely lays bare Assad’s claims about political independence, and shows that it was forced by the international community to go to Geneva II,” Saleh said. Saleh also recited statements made by the Assad regime’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem who said in a press conference held in Moscow that “today I made a proposal to Lavrov about the security arrangements that we must make in Aleppo, and if it proves successful, I hope we can move on these arrangements in other cities such as Daraya. We expect Lavrov to inform us when to announce our commitment to this proposal.” Furthermore, Saleh said that “we want to discuss everything during the second round, but there must be a transitional governing body with full powers independently able to implement the decisions that may be taken, including a cease-fire and lifting the siege. In a similar vein, Hadi Al Bahra, the chief negotiator for the delegation of the Syrian Coalition, said that Russia’s announcement that “the Assad regime will attend the second round of the Geneva negotiations indicates lack of independent decision-making, and  that they were forced by Russia to attend Geneva II as an implementation of the UN Security Council resolution No. 2118. Bahra also said that the Syrian Coalition announced its decision to attend the second round at end of the first round of negotiations, which indicates its independence and seriousness to reaching a political solution. (Source: Syrian Coalition)