“The only opposition supported and represented by the Syrian people is the one that has carried the banner of the revolution and has struggled to achieve its objectives to reach freedom and dignity and who defended the rights of the Syrian people from the outset.” Khalid Saleh, the Syrian Coalition’s Media Office Director, stated. He stressed that those who get Assad’s approval are not the real opposition, rather they must be called “opposition approved by the Assad regime” because the Assad regime “created it and is now promoting it in collaboration with its allies.” Saleh added that “Assad’s regime is hampering the peace conference, which aims to find a political solution, through the statements of its representatives who have confirmed that they will not go to Geneva II for a handing over of power. In doing so the Assad regime contradicts the basis of this conference, which is the formation of a transitional governing body with executive powers on all state institutions, including the military and security forces, according to the communique of Geneva I in 2012, which is considered by international consensus to be the basis of Geneva II.” Saleh also pointed out that “the decision of the General Assembly of the United Nations No. 262 considers that the Syrian Coalition consists of those who represent the forces necessary for the process of political transition, since all of the anti-regime forces are represented in the ranks of the Coalition.” Saleh’s statements come in response to comments by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov given at a press conference in which he said that “the Syrian Coalition cannot become an umbrella for all spectra of the opposition.” Lavrov insists that the Syrian Coalition cannot represent the entire spectra of the opposition at Geneva II, and that the Syrian Coalition is the reason for the delay of Geneva II because it puts preconditions for its attendance at the conference. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
