Syrian politicians in SOHR exclusive interviews| Some paths created maze and deepened crisis in Syria

The political scene in Syria hasn’t changed after a decade of domestic and international struggle. Despite the all the political paths that included Geneva, Sochi, Riyadh, Cairo and Turkey meetings, that have been taken to reach a solution and after all the conferences that are described by experts as stalled, and due to the failure of the opposition for forming a united front for producing an alternative of the regime, the crisis in Syria remained unsettled.

Since 2012-2017 eight conferences about the Syrian crisis in Geneva, amid different domestic and foreign conditions, essential disagreements and differences among the warring parties have appeared and have stood against reaching a firm solution for the negotiable issues during the indirect negotiations that have gathered two delegations of the opposition and the Syrian regime  under the UN’s mediation.

Despite of the opposition bids for reviving the political process in Geneva over Syria based on the UNSC resolution number 2254, all endeavors failed, which raised questions about reasons behind that failure and the spots of defects.

Marah al-Beqaay, the prominent opposition politician and chairmen of the Syrian Republic Party, told SOHR in an exclusive interview that “the diversity of conference in terms of numbers and the absence of the quality and clear vision along with the absence of follow up of the outcomes implementation are the main reasons behind failure of any gathering till now in achieving the objective of the 2011 revolution.”

She added, “ I don’t seen any use of holding new conferences that wouldn’t carry a new message to the Syrians or the world that could at least positively push for  the crisis to settlement and could carry the success seeds while applying the UNSC resolution for political transfer of power in Syria.”

Al-Beqaay deemed change of the field conditions continuously will keep the political work stalled for not a short period.

She added that the Syrian revolution has concluded in March ten years of destruction, deportation, pains and sufferings that no conference or UNSC decisions were able to stop while Syrians were absent in the luxurious hotels’ meetings and their peaceful revolution has been turned into bloody and armed after their cities have been besieged and their houses that carry their memories have been looted.

Each Syrian, today, asks what the different meetings have provided except for more hunger and deportation?

From his side, Bashar al-Haj Aly, former diplomat, independent politician and representative of the Syrian National Coalition of the European Union told SOHR speaking about the Syrian revolution and the delay of the political solution requires going back to the beginning when the protests erupted in Daraa (Hawran) as a popular uprising in response to the arrest of Daraa al-Balad children that are now undergoing now a siege and a pressure because it still preserves its opposing stand for the raged authority.

The uprising was a spontaneous popular flow without a leader and has developed into an uprising due to the excessive violence of that gang and expanded by time into a revolution that overwhelmed the whole country, which make it difficult to make a leader.

He added with the intervention of the Iranian regime and Hezbollah militia beside other factions, the international intervention was the main decisive factor in the Syrian situation given its geo-political important stand and the conflict of the foreign agendas that made it difficult for finding a solution by the Syrians alone or even the regional countries .

The former diplomat added that the conditions in Syria have been governed by consensus included the Syrian-Syrian, the regional and the international ones, and until those consensus deals are achieved the conference will only work as a mean of keeping the Syrian cause alive.

He reiterated that no one can deny that the UNSC resolutions especially number 2254 has presented clear vision for a political solution that doesn’t exclude anyone of the Syrian parties and stipulated the sovereignty, safety and unity of the Syrian land and protects the diversity without isolating Syria from its Arab neighboring. However, the resolution hasn’t been implemented until now and all the rounds were conducted without result either during the negotiations or during the constitutional process.

Aly added that carrying out the resolutions needs firm and serious international willing that is not available till now, adding to the possibility of moving towards the political solution by the Syrian is limited in real ground. Enforcing the resolution means rejecting any solution that doesn’t meet the Syrian people aspirations in a country that ensures the right and dignity of its people via a democratic system that protects a clear constitution that is approved by a popular referendum.

He added the problem isn’t the number of conferences and meetings but due to lack of political life in Syria before the revolution that could make political change and the revolution didn’t create a political leader. So, the country has fallen as a hostage of international interventions that were promoted by the dictator ruling authority to protect their gains.

He emphasized that the Syrians aren’t less than other world people and once they own the self-determination that can at least agree and start and live like the past of thousand years.

On the other hand,  Qasem al-Khateeb, member of the Syrian Arab political constitutional committee told SOHR the conference of August 21 and 22 is special compared to the other conferences because it’s a Syrian-Syrian meeting without foreign interventions at the level of funding and documentation.

He said that invitation was sent to independent Syrian national persons who aren’t forced to work under certain foreign agenda, noting that the draft of the first conference has stressed that Syria is a united Arab country and has called for activating the political process and implement the UNSC resolutions number 2118 and 2254. It is time for the international community to deal with an independent national opposition that aspires a united country away from the narrow interest and the political ambitions.

He added the conference will stress that Syrian in the future should be independent and shouldn’t be a theatre for the international conflicts, expecting that the conference will result in producing a political body but wouldn’t present an alternative for the oppositions structure.

Al-Khateeb believed that the conference will present a real image for a democratic national opposition that believes in political solution after failure of all the military solutions and seeks to take independent national decisions for serving the Syrian people.

It is time after a decade of conflicts that the Syrians could find an exist to get out the dark tunnel they were forced to enter by the tyrant regime and the regional terrorist forces and the non-national opposition that seek positions away from the national interest in a divided and destroyed country due to the hateful foreign intervention. It is a must to walk towards correcting the political solution that end the war for building a citizenship country where citizens are equal before the law where people can live free and in a democratic environment, he said.

Brigadier, Ahmad al-Rahal told SOHR that all different paths have been divided in the ten years into two sections: one under the UN patronage or the tripartite meetings under mediation of Russia, Turkey and Iran. As long as there no Russian-US understanding and resolution number 2254 wasn’t activated, it is normal the al-Assad regime would play with all the paths to waste time.

He added that the regime delegation in Geneva and Moscow tasks were to divide and to fail the negotiations and invest in time via those paths, noting that the international community has created such conferences to just show interest in the Syrian issue, but it is convinced that such gatherings wouldn’t lead to any results because there are no diplomatic, economic or military pressures.

He added that the west realized that achieving any good results will start by putting pressure on the regime and forces it to listen to the UNSC decisions adding that the international community is no longer interested in the Syrian issue as an “alleged duty”.

As for the regional and local conferences, al-Rahal added that they haven’t enjoyed a real political cover to support it or real leadership, noting that the current conference in Geneva that doesn’t enjoy any international cover will remain as just a cry in the air that nobody heard it and would lead to any result.

He accused the opposition institutions as weak and dependent on some persons who have sold the Syrian cause for western and regional agendas and prevented any real representation for the revolution.

Al-Rahal reiterated his call for establishing opposition Syrian bodies that cope with the revolution demands and represents it people, which has been refused by Naser al-Hariri, the former president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition. He noted that the military wing also prevents any formation to express the people opinion as rejecting the accepting the status quo and the dependance on the foreign players which contradict with the revolution principles.

Meanwhile, he attributed failure of the paths to the absence of the revolution political wing and the military wing that express the people demands and understand its aspirations away from the violence, deportation, murder and militarization.

Meanwhile, Meanirva al-Baroqy, right activist and member of the preparatory committee of the Syrian national Conference, said the ongoing conference in Geneva doesn’t seek to fail any path that could lead even with one percent to a result for the interest of the Syria and its people anywhere.

She added after ten years all the papers are clear now and the crises deepened, several political structures have become weak and there is no solution looming especially after the increasing foreign interventions that have broken the already divided people, noting that those intervention are responsible beside the security military solution for the people deportation and the increasing poverty for all Syrians across the country.

She added that the conference participants haven’t been on communication with any international sides because the gathering is a Syrian-Syrian away from all agendas that have polluted the Syrian scene complicated its crises.

He concluded, “we are the Syrians reject any foreign interventions that have torn the country up and divided its people. All foreign intervention should be lift and all the international resolutions that seek bring the rapped rights to its people should be applied.”