Syrian Coalition Denounces Assad’s Imploration to Be a Partner in Anti-ISIS Coalition

Nasr al-Hariri, Secretary General of the Syrian Coalition, said that ISIS’s takeover of the Tabaqa Air Base in eastern Syrian comes within a series of the Assad regime’s systematic handover of its positions in eastern Syria to ISIS. “The Assad regime is seeking through this tactic to win the sympathy of the international community and to give the impression that it is a target for terrorism. Moreover, Assad’s scarifying of 650 soldiers who were left to die in the air base while sending helicopters to evacuate the officers clearly shows that Assad’s sole concern is not the safety of his soldiers but the survival of his regime. It also proves that Assad is ready to sacrifice his own soldiers in return for achieving political ends.” Hariri described the remarks made today by the Assad regime’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem as “an attempt to politically rehabilitate the Assad regime through announcing its readiness to be part of an international coalition to fight ISIS, which was allowed to grow and fester by the Assad regime itself. The loophole in the UN Security Council resolution No. 2170, which excluded pro-Assad militias from the terrorism list, has emboldened Assad to unabashedly declare himself as a partner in the fight against terrorism. Therefore, the international community should realize that stemming the tide of extremism in the region requires a political process in parallel with military action, and that the root of the problem can be tackled only when the circumstances that led to the surge of terrorism are eliminated. It has been proven time and again that the Assad regime’s militarization of the popular uprising has created a vacuum that was exploited by extremists, and created the ideal environment for ISIS to grow and expand. We are confident that the Assad regime’s incessant imploration to be a partner in the fight against terrorism will not succeed in winning over the international community’s tolerance of its wholesale crimes against the Syrian people. The Assad regime is undoubtedly the root problem of terrorism and cannot be part of the solution. More importantly, the decision to fight the terrorism of the Assad regime and ISIS must before everything else take Syria’s national interests into account, and it is a decision that Syrians have long made without waiting for instructions from the international community or the friendly countries.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)