Syrian Coalition Calls on the US to Rethink Its Policy on Syria

Mohammed Qaddah, vice president of the Syrian Coalition, calls on the US administration to rethink its policy on Syria, saying that “we have repeatedly pointed out that terrorism in Syria and the region cannot be defeated without the elimination of its root causes, which is the Assad regime.” Qaddah’s statement followed reports that President Barack Obama has asked his national security team for another review of the U.S. policy toward Syria “after realizing that ISIS may not be defeated without a political transition in Syria and the removal of President Bashar al-Assad,” senior U.S. officials and diplomats tell CNN. Qaddah stresses that “terrorism in Syria and the region cannot be reduced to one group only, as this term includes the Assad regime and the foreign terrorist militias such as the Hezbollah and Abu al Fadl al Abbas militias. This does not mean that we are underestimating the danger of ISIS, but we should not ignore the fact that Assad’s crimes greatly outweigh ISIS’s crimes in terms of the number of victims. And if the scale of terrorism is measured by the threat it imposes on the West, we should recall to mind the threats sent by the Assad regime’s grand mufti who explicitly stated that they have suicide bombers in the West and are waiting for a signal from Assad to carry out terrorist bombings there.” Qaddah concluded his remarks stressing that the fate of the Syrian people, who have been subjected to the terrorism of ISIS and Assad, must not be decided by the Western interests in the region, nor do we accept for the blood of our children to be used as bargaining chip to serve other countries’ interests.”  (Source: Syrian Coalition)