The Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army rejects sitting at the negotiating table with those who have “Syrian blood on their hands.” The Council added: ” Let Geneva 2 fail if the international community does not take a stern position towards the horrific massacre of Syrian civilians.” The Supreme Military Council of the FSA said that the Geneva 2 formula lacks everything that suggests the possibility of reaching concrete results. The Council stressed the need to develop a specific timetable for all stages of negotiation, with the inclusion binding clauses that apply to all parties under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
Another key issue is to prevent splitting up of Syrian territory. This came after a meeting between the President of the Syrian Coalition, Ahmad Jarba, and the Chief of Staff for the Free Syrian Army, with Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu, and UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, in Ankara today. The discussed the Syrian Coalition’s conditions to attend the Geneva conference. The conditions call for the opening of humanitarian corridors to besieged areas, the release of detainees, the transfer of power along with all government institutions, and setting a specific timetable for all stages of negotiation. The Syrian Coalition considers the time element an essential part of the terms for going to negotiation.
The Syrian Coalition’s conditions include the need to incorporate a binding clause which applies to all the parties involved in the Geneva 2 negotiations implemented under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. The Syrian Coalition stressed that “no group represents the revolution, except for the Coalition for the Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces and its associated components.” The head of the Syrian Coalition ruled out that he would accept “Iran as a mediator on the negotiating table, including Hezbollah militia mercenaries, Abu al-Fadl Abbas Brigades and the Revolutionary Guards.” They are considered some of the most important military and political forces who support Bashar al Assad during the perpetration of the massacres in Syria. Jarba pointed out that “the military and private support qualitative arms against a fundamental constant aircraft start to create a real balance on the ground, can the revolutionary forces which force the system to negotiate and not daring to kill unarmed civilians .”
President of the Syrian Coalition, Ahmad Jarba, said that the decision to go to Geneva 2 is directly in the hands of the Syrian people and considers the “Coalition as nothing more than an outlet for the people’s will.” Jarba also stated “If we say yes to Geneva 2, you will hear the Syrian street echo loudly with screams of: “Down with the Coalition and Geneva together,” at the Friends of Syria meeting. Jarba added that the Geneva 2 parameters are not consistent with what the terms put forward by the Coalition and considers it a “humiliating settlement” that does not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people. Jarba considers the deal as faux humanitarianism to propagate a message of peace in front of their citizens from the shameful position “toward Bashar al Assad’s massacres and atrocities.”
Jarba pointed out that in the event the international community continues to insist on not holding Assad responsible for his crimes, and standing against the will of the Syrian people, participating in Geneva will be impossible.
Jarba promised that international politics “will face five no’s instead of three no’s: No negotiations, No solution, No recognition, No retreat, and no to an incapable international community.”
The official spokesman of the Syrian National Council, Louay Safi, stated that Bashar Assad and the Russian Foreign Minister want to negotiate with an “opposition which they create with members such as the regime’s Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil. Safi described the “group as a structure that is not separate from the regime.” The Russian Foreign Ministry described the claim that the Syrian National Council is the sole representative of the Syrian people as a “conspiracy and breach against the essence of the framework of the Russian-American initiative.” The Russian Foreign Ministry argued that the Friends of Syria group “is trying to rewrite the Geneva 1 statement for their own political purposes.” The Ministry added, “The statement reflects the group’s attempts to change their views on key elements of the Geneva 1 statement in order to determine the outcomes of Geneva 2 in advance.”
(Source: Syrian Coalition)
