Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition
Department of Media and Communications
April 13, 2023
The Assad regime resorted to heinous tactics such as criminality and terrorism to suppress the Syrian people who demanded freedom over twelve years ago. The regime has committed some of the most horrific crimes known to humanity, such as using chemical weapons, barrel bombs, and other types of internationally prohibited weapons against innocent civilians. It is crucial that Arab countries and the international community take immediate and robust action to hold the regime accountable, and apply pressure to engage in the political process.
The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) strongly emphasizes that the decision by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to receive the foreign minister of the Assad regime is not only concerning but also sends a deeply troubling message. This regime has committed countless atrocious crimes against the Syrian people, and such a move increases the complexity of the already fragile political process. The SOC stresses that the Assad regime has never shown any real commitment to the political process in Syria and has deliberately obstructed all attempts to implement UN resolutions, especially Resolution 2254.
The SOC affirms that any rapprochement with the Assad regime will not lead to a political solution in Syria. Instead, it will strengthen the authority of a war criminal and only result in further massacres and atrocities against the Syrian people. The SOC calls on everyone to uphold their moral and human responsibility to condemn the war criminal, punish him, and isolate him from any international or regional forum and meeting.
The SOC warns that a viable solution to the humanitarian and political problems in Syria must begin with holding the Assad regime accountable. This is because the regime sponsors foreign and sectarian militias that it brought in to kill the Syrian people. Additionally, the regime is responsible for the manufacturing and exporting of drugs to the world. The return of refugees depends significantly on the departure of the Assad regime, as refugees cannot return to areas controlled by the regime, where detention centers are still full of innocent people who demanded freedom.
The Assad regime has long cultivated terrorist, sectarian, and separatist militias in Syria, sponsoring more than seventy of these groups to kill and displace the Syrian people and change the demographic landscape of the country. State institutions have been used in favor of the regime’s brutal war against the Syrian people. For instance, football stadiums were turned into military barracks, schools into detention centers, and hospitals into slaughterhouses for killing and executing protesters.
The SOC calls on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to reconsider its position on the Assad regime and stand firm on its honorable position regarding the necessity of isolating the regime and holding it accountable for the crimes it committed against the Syrian people and the peoples of the region.
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