Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition – Syria
Department of Media and Communications
March 28, 2020
Dealing with the head of the regime and the criminal institutions that he presides over does not represent standing on the side of the Syrian people, but with the criminal who kills them. Such move will go down in history and will not be tolerated by the Arab peoples who supported the Syrian people’s revolution against tyranny and to whom we renew our thanks on every occasion.
In light of the current circumstances and developments, it is necessary to remind the friendly and sisterly peoples and governments of the world of one of the horrific events that took place in Syria during the past decade. It is also necessary to redraw the image that some are trying to erase about the regime of killing and mass displacement, chemical weapons, and barrel bombs as well as about its continuing crimes against the Syrian people.
This regime is directly responsible for the killing of nearly a million Syrians, the mass displacement of more than 12 million from their homes, and reducing their towns and villages to rubble. It still detains more than 250,000 in terrible prisons and detention centers that were exposed by the Caesar photos, hundreds of reports, and thousands of documents and testimonies.
This regime does not care about the fate of the Syrian people. It sees in every crisis, such as the coronavirus outbreak, which is classified as a global disaster by all standards, an opportunity to cover up its crimes and continue with the killing while the world is busy confronting the disaster and finding solutions to it.
The Assad regime has always been a gateway to the Iranian interference in the Arab world. Extending a hand toward it will only serve to consolidate these interventions. Moreover, the reasons that prompted the Arab League and its countries to severe ties with the regime and expel it from the Arab League still exist. These reasons seriously aggravated, making any attempt to reach out to this murderous regime representing violation of the Arab consensus, encouragement of the regime’s refusal of a just political solution, and a hostile act against the Syrian people. Such move will put those behind it in the face of international legitimacy, international law, and all laws and norms threatening to hold criminals and those who support them accountable, including Caesar’s Act which would affect everyone trying to circumvent or violate these sanctions.
Today the Syrian people inside and outside Syria, in detention centers, IDP camps, and the diaspora, need someone to truly stand with them, not with the killers. This is what we expect from our brothers and friends.
May our wounded recover, our detainees be free, and our fallen heroes rest in peace.
Long live Syria and the Syrian people, free and with honor.
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