Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition
Department of Media and Communications
October 03, 2021
For over ten years, the Assad regime has waged a brutal war against the Syrian people, killing a million civilians, detaining a quarter of a million more and displacing half of the pre-war population. This sheer amount of atrocities must prohibit all bids for the rehabilitation of the Assad regime or restoring relations with it.
Restoring relations with the murderous Assad regime cannot be justified by any pretext, especially economic motives. Indeed, the Assad regime has made Syria one of the poorest in the world as it unable to secure bread and fuel for the population living under its control. Pinning hope on this regime beggars belief as such step will only bring crises and disappointments.
Instead of trying to rehabilitate the Assad regime, we must work to deal with the root cause of the crisis. A genocidal regime cannot act as a source of stability as chaos and criminality are an essential element in the nature and composition of the regime, which depends on them for its survival.
We call upon all states that have recently decided to extend their hands to the murderous Assad regime, which has long lost its legitimacy, to rethink their decisions a thousand times. Acceptance of this regime and the restoration of ties with it amounts to tolerating an endless litany of war crimes and crimes against humanity that this regime has committed against the Syrian people for the past ten years.
We commend the positions of sisterly Arab states and other friendly states that have by far clung to their principled stance with regard to the genocidal regime and its crimes against the Syrian people. We also highly appreciate their continued support for the Syrian people and their just demands for freedom, dignity and independence.
The international action required for Syria’s return to its Arab and international folds and the return of coordination and joint action with Syria begins with the implementation of UN resolutions on Syria and holding war criminals accountable in parallel with working for achieving a transition to a new civil political system of rule in accordance with the Geneva Communique of 2012 and UN Security Council’s resolution 2254.
We call on our brothers in the Arab states to support international bids for holding the Assad regime accountable for its crimes and violations. We also call on them to urge the international community, UN Security Council and international actors to establish an effective international mechanism that combines sanctions with practical measures within a specific time frame that guarantees an end to the ongoing crimes and the suffering of tens of thousands of detainees in the Assad regime’s prisons. Such mechanism should also ensure the safe return of refugees and the IDPs; implementing UN resolutions; and achieving political transition.
