Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition
Department of Media and Communications
July 19, 2022
The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) stresses that Russia’s prevention of the Assad regime from participating in the ninth session of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva has laid bare Russia’s role in disrupting the political process in Syria and showed the extent of the regime’s subservience to Russia.
The blatant Russian interference in the constitutional process in Syria and its disruption of the sessions of the Constitutional Committee contradicts the rules of procedure of the Committee. These rules of procedure clearly stipulated that the constitutional process should be Syrian-led and Syrian-owned with facilitations by the United Nations. They also clearly stipulated that the Committee should seek to serve the interests of the Syrian people alone. However, the Assad regime is trying to derail the work of the Committee with the aim of serving the interests of Russia and using the whole process as a bargaining chip by which Russia tries to blackmail the West in the context of its aggression on Ukraine.
The Russian orders to the Assad regime not to participate in the ninth session of the Constitutional Committee have demonstrated the Assad regime’s utter subservience to Putin and its willingness to act in accordance with the Russian interests and its blackmail of the West. For many years, the murderous Assad regime has been a puppet in the hands of Russia and Iran, which manipulate the regime in accordance with their interests in exchange for providing it with the means to kill and displace the Syrian people.
The United Nations is equally responsible with the Assad regime and its backers for the continued disruption of the political process in Syria in view of its inaction and its failure to open all baskets of UN resolution 2254, which the Syrian people hope will be the gateway to the end of the Syrian tragedy.
The SOC stresses the need to enforce a political transition in Syria in accordance with a clear timetable regardless of the procrastination by the Assad regime and Russia which are seeking to gain more time to achieve new gains at the expense of the Syrian people and the future of their country.
