US special envoy to Syria Michael Ratney said that the American vision towards the solution in Syria is still stable and has not changed; stressing that Assad cannot have a place in Syria’s future. He also said that the Russians are mistaken if they work to help Assad in an interview with Shaam News Network.
While he opposes Russia’s position which calls for engaging Assad in the fight against ISIS, denying there is such a term as a “safe zone” in northern Syria, but a zone free of ISIS, which is part of the grand strategy to rid Syria and Iraq of this group. He pointed out that once this area is established, civilians will be able to return to their homes in northern Syria and they will be protected from both Assad and ISIS.
Ratney denied that the Syrian file was part of the Iranian nuclear negotiations, or was part of the deal, adding negotiating with Iran does not mean overlooking the least important things or the nefarious things Iran is doing in the region. He concluded that the US continues to believe that the Iranian intervention in Syria is one of the important reasons for the bloodshed taking place in Syria.
Head of the Legal Committee Haitham al-Maleh said that Iran and Russia have not stopped media, militarily, financial, or political support for the Assad regime since the start of the Syrian revolution. “For the past three months, Iran and Russia have let known their goals and interests behind this unlimited support at the expense of the Syrian people’s blood and their soil,” Maleh said in in a memorandum handed over to the permanent delegates to the Arab League during their regular meeting in Cairo on Wednesday.
“The battles Iran is waging in Damascus and its suburbs, especially in Zabadani as well as the negotiations it conducts with rebels directly and the increased Russian military presence on Syrian territory prove beyond a doubt that the Assad regime has sold Syria to Iran and Russia in return for surviving in power.”
“Russia and Iran now have zones of influence in Syria, Russia has troops at the Syrian coast and Iran and its militias in the greater Damascus and on the border with Lebanon, Homs and its surroundings. This coincides with an Iranian project aimed at changing the demography in Damascus to replace its indigenous people with Shiites coming from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan,” Maleh added.
“Iranian militants are now cracking down on civilians in Damascus through increasing number of checkpoints in the city and through shelling residential neighborhoods to intimidate people and force them to leave the city to carry out their plan in the demographic change, pointing out that as a result of the severe restrictions security of living on civilians and noted that the city. As a result, over 200 families flee their homes in Damascus amidst Arab and international silence.”
Maleh strongly condemns Iran and Russia’s egregious plans against the Syrian people, the genocidal crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing against the Syrian people.
Maleh calls on Arab governments and peoples to shoulder their responsibilities towards the Syrian people, demanding that the Arab League take responsibility towards the protection of Syria and the Syrian people on the grounds that the Iranian and Russian intervention affect the Arab national security. He also calls upon the international community, especially the UN Security Council to act more effectively to end the suffering of the Syrian people and to enforce application its resolutions on Syria, most notably resolutions 2042 and 2139. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
