Yesterday President of Syria Bashar Assad set the date of the parliamentary elections on May 7th. Voting would take place according to the project of the constitution, which was supported by 89% of population at the referendum on February 26. However, the Syrian opposition considers the referendum and the adopted project of the constitution as illegitimate. It is supported by the USA, where the decision of Assad is called “ridiculous.”
Riad Haddad, Ambassor of Syria to Russia, spoke about the position of Damascus.
On democratic reforms
What is going on in Syria? Is it a revolution or a riot? Does Syria need democratic reform? Pluralism and freedom? There are definitely patriotic powers in Syria that want democracy and pluralism. These movements exist in Syrian society and influence it. They are ready for dialogue to improve the situation in the country. I approve of the reformist steps taken by the president, Bashar Al-Assad. You know that President Assad abolished the state of emergency. He created committees that elaborated new laws, particularly in the sphere of elections. Because of this, political pluralism is working in Syria and several new parties have emerged. We have a new law on mass media. A new Syrian constitution has been created and approved by universal referendum on February 26. If you allow me, I will speak a little bit more about the referendum and the constitution. The bands and military groups that enjoy the support of many countries were trying with their weapons to impede people participating in the referendum. And despite all this, 58% of those eligible to vote took part in the referendum, of whom 89% said “yes”, so we can conclude that the majority of the Syrian population supports the reforms and the steps taken by the government.
On the opposition
The question is: what are the forces on the other side? They say that there is an internal and external opposition. The internal opposition goes with the people and sincerely wants reform of the country. There are those who, with weapons in their hands, attack the civilian population and kill women and children and destroy the infrastructure, pipelines, even hospitals, block roads and rob and threaten food security. We cannot call them an “opposition”. Research has proved that most of them are not citizens of Syria. Now about the external opposition: Those who live abroad, they are far from knowing the real situation inside the country. Some of them studied abroad and stayed there. Others could not succeed in their country and emigrated. They are not known in Syria. Syrian people did not know about them. They became known only after these events. They want to seize power. If they really want reforms, why do they refuse to have a dialogue? They can take part in working on the new constitution. And if they really want good for their home-country, they can legally and peacefully offer their suggestions. It is known that democracy comes with ballot boxes and not with the military forces of the US and NATO. If they were sure that the population supports them, they would have hurried up to participate. They could have challenged the regime in a democratic way. The regime welcomes them. If the people trust them, let them rule the country. They refuse. They also deny the fact that there are terrorist organizations in the country that threaten people. They encroach on the rights of people in the choice of representatives. They do not want the principles of freedom to become stronger.
On the international situation
When they realized that they cannot influenced the situation in the country, when they realized that their political line was refused, and when they understood that the Syrian people know their real connections abroad, then they addressed the UN with its American hegemony. But they were too late, because the world has changed. There are new forces on the international stage that see the world with different eyes and wish only freedom and democracy, And these forces already managed to express it without fear, also using the right of veto. Those forces wanted to complicate the situation with the Arabic states. And some Arabic states started acting too openly. At first they wanted to hide behind the request for Arabic observers to work. But the observers came and told the truth, They admitted that there are numerous militarized groups that act aggressively towards the civilian population. The security forces have to react to protect the population. They do not like it. Therefore they did not accept the reports of the observers and went to the UN, where they met with the Russian-Chinese veto.
On the prospects of solutions to the problem
There are two choices.
The first is what President Assad and the internal patriotic opposition say. And the majority of the Syrian population is with them. This choice is based on continuation of the reforms. After adoption of the constitution a government of national unity should be formed. It should prepare the elections. This should happen 90 days after approval of the constitution. Second, it is difficult to continue reforms when the security of the society is not ensured. Therefore we will continue to fight against the military groups until we destroy them. To stop their aggression against the civilian population. This policy is supported by the entire Syrian people.
The enemies of Syria abroad want to militarize the opposition to change the regime. So they just want to change the regime and not build a new Syria. Where are the prospects for regulation? We will not retreat. We see that our enemies will also continue their attack. They are strong. But we are also not weak. Our cause is a just one and the people see it. It is not that the people follow the government, but it goes ahead of it to realize the principles in which it believes.
From the very beginning the West was supporting the opposition and providing it with money and weapons. Military aggression started long ago. They act for a long time, because they have money and weapons. Should there be military intervention in Syria, it will cause numerous consequences. Syria is different from the other Arabic countries because of its people, its army and intellectual and cultural level. All these elements give Syria power and immunity.
On Homs
Homs is an important infrastructural center and it is close to the Lebanese border. There is also a big oil refinery. It is an infrastructural cluster. So military groups organized the explosions of the pipeline and the railroads. They blocked the international routes between Damascus and Aleppo and mined the houses. They illegally brought foreign journalists there, mostly from the UK and France. We do not believe that they are real journalists. We think they are spies, because they violate the independence of the country and come there illegally. They came there to manage the military processes in Homs. The state was patient for a while, did not want to intervene to avoid civilan casualties, but then it finally decided to intervene and entered Baba- Amr to free the civilian population. There were many foreigners, especially among the corpses. There were even Afghanis. As for the military clashes in Homs, we saw that these military groups are very well prepared, it felt as if they were particularly prepared to fight in the cities.
On Syrian-Turkey relations
As for Turkey, we can say that Turkey is not a partner of Syria, it is a member of NATO and it has very strong connections with Israel. The wisdom of President Bashar and a correct policy in Syria managed to make the position of Turkey milder and from confrontation we moved to cooperation. Relations between the governments and between the people.
“Syria also values the Russian position. You know that the last veto of Russia in the UN security council prevented the adoption of a resolution that was unfair towards Syria. It was in contradiction with the UN statutes. This resolution was calling to interfere in the internal affairs of an independent state.”
