The European Union stuck to its line that it did not believe Syria was safe for refugees to go back as the Assad regime forces and their allied Iranian militias continued to commit gross violations of human rights.
Officials in Brussels were responding to a Russian push to have Syrian refugees return to the war-torn country and the international community to spend money on rebuilding it.
The bloc’s foreign ministers will discuss the matter in Austria later this week.
Meanwhile, activists in Dara’a province said that Assad regime’s security forces detained civilians in the town of Ghabaghib in northern rural Dara’a on Monday. Assad’s Military Security Branch also raided civilian homes in the town despite the settlement agreements the Assad regime imposed on residents of the town.
Earlier, Assad’s militia killed military doctor Moataz Hteitani who exited eastern Ghouta via the so-called “safe crossings” which Russia said it established in the Damascus suburb. The Syrian Coalition said that these incidents refuted Russia’s claims about its ability to restore order and stability to Syria.
Member of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee Oqab Yahya on Tuesday said that facts on the ground indicated the existence of major security, political and humanitarian crises in Syria. He stressed that Russia cannot deny the existence of these crises just as it cannot impose its will on the Syrian people, including trying to force the refugees to return to Syria and live once again at the mercy of the Assad regime.
Yahya went on to say that the recent confirmation of the war crimes and torture that the Assad regime committed against detainees has indicted Moscow before the international public opinion. He noted that Russia has vigorously defended Assad at the UN Security Council and cast the veto 11 times to prevent the adoption of a resolution condemning the Assad regime and calling for bringing it before justice. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
