President Khoja said that Moscow’s calls for a “dialogue between the opposition and the Assad regime is a departure from the spirit and letter of the Geneva declaration of June 30th, 2012. It also negates the UN Security Council Resolution 2118 which calls for holding negotiations between the opposition and the regime under the auspices of the United Nations whereby all executive powers are transferred to a transitional governing body. Khoja stresses that negotiations must be held in a neutral country, pointing out that this must be a continuation of the of Geneva II Conference as was spelled out in Article 17 of the UN Security Council Resolution 2118. “The Syrian national dialogue, as was stipulated in the Geneva declaration, should be held after reaching a political settlement whereby a transitional phase is initiated with establishing a transitional governing body with full executive powers whose primary task will be the creation of a neutral environment for conducting the national dialogue. This was clearly spelled out in clause 9a and 9b of the Geneva declaration and also in Article 16 of the UN Security Council Resolution 2118.”
Khoja reiterates the Syrian Coalition’s support for a political solution in Syria, pointing out that “we have already drafted a 13-item document for a political settlement that serves as a roadmap for a political solution in Syria. The draft document calls for achieving the demands of the revolution, most importantly the removal of Bashar al-Assad from power and making radical change in the political system and build a civil pluralist state.” Khoja also calls for supporting the intra-opposition dialogue which was initiated by the Syrian Coalition and has gone a long way. The intra-opposition meetings took place in Turkey, Egypt and some European countries and continue to be held until now. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
