 The international community was expecting with interest the first public address by Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad after months of silence, but his speech brought nothing new. While prior to the speech Damascus said the president would reveal a new peace plan, the Syrian leader remained inflexible and even urged his supporters to defend their homeland.
Al-Assad underlined that the ongoing conflict is not between the power and the opposition, but between Syria and its enemies who wish to divide the country, saying the conflict is planned and fuelled by foreign forces with the help of the “terrorists” working with Al Qaida.
Al-Assad called for national dialogue and said he was sorry he had not found a partner so far to implement a political solution to the crisis. He rejected all form of dialogue with the Syrian opposition, which he described as a puppet of the West. According to al-Assad, the first step towards a political solution is for the regional powers to stop financing and supplying weapons to the rebels. The leader in Damascus also proposed a national reconciliation conference.
The opposition rejected the initiative and instead called on him to step down as a pre-condition for solving the 21-month conflict in which 60,000 people have been killed so far according to the United Nations. Al-Assad’s address has been criticised by Britain, which has described it as “hypocritical”, as well as the US, according to which it is “detached from reality” and an attempt by the Syrian president to “cling to power”.
The US, Britain and the European Union have again called on al-Assad to step down to allow for a democratic transition in Syria. The instability in this country has led some of Syria’s neighbours to increase security measures. Israel plans to build an electric fence on its border with Syria similar to the fence on the Israeli-Egyptian border to protect itself from “terrorist incursions.”
At Ankara’s request, the first Patriot surface-to-air missiles and 1,200 troops supplied by the US, Germany and Holland arrived in Turkey as part of a defence mission meant to protect Turkey from a possible attack from Syria. Romania has also repeatedly expressed its concern over the serious humanitarian situation in Syria, bearing in mind the significant ethnic Romanian community in that
country. A donor meeting is scheduled for the 30th of January in Kuwait to raise humanitarian aid for Syrian civilians.
|
2025-04-03
Print
Listen again