By Vestnik Kavkaza
The EU stands for “a political settlement” of the Syrian conflict, but intends to provide rebels with armament. These are results of the session of the Foreign Ministries EU Council. No practical proposals or decision have been made at this meeting, ITAR-TASS reports from Brussels.
Meanwhile, representatives of the National Coordination Committee "For Democratic Change", who represent the Syrian opposition, came for negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his deputy Mikhail Bogdanov.
Heisam al-Manaa, Coordinator of the Committee, stated after negotiations that “at the previous press conference I was asked how we can express a point of view that is shared by only a minority in Syria. Today the situation has changed. It is of course impossible to say that everyone supports a peaceful democratic solution, but more and more people oppose a military solution. Ordinary Syrians both inside and outside the country, and our foreign partners share our opinion, trying to keep Syria as a state. We are trying to find a common denominator to bring together the ruling regime and the opposition to move to a democratic state that would deserve the sacrifice that the Syrian people have made in the name of its future. The transition to democracy will help to eliminate the causes of the current conflict, namely, dictatorship and the corruption. We welcome different points of view and the position of Mr Lavrov. The negotiations today lasted for five hours. Our position is close to that of Russia on many points. Together we will try to devise a schedule, some deadlines and conditions for democratic dialogue, because we simply have no time for mistakes. We will try to come closer to the other opposition groups to find those who support us and can help us in the creation of a new transitional government.”
“There are attempts to escalate the conflict. But there are also attempts at a political solution,” Radja An-Naser, Head of the Organizing Committee of the conference on Syria, says. “Military forces of course accumulate. The political process, unfortunately, moves too slowly. It is not serious enough. If we do not find a political solution, there will be a catastrophe. It will be a problem not only for Syria but also for the neighbouring countries and the entire world. We met with the Russian leadership that still has some aces to play, they still can play. We want these political aces to be used, because Russian can find serious ways to influence not only the ruling regime but the opposition. These are the ideas with which we came here for the negotiations. We see that the Russian side wants a political solution to the problem. The Syrian government also supports this idea, at least verbally, although of course there is a discrepancy between what they say and what they do. Our Syrian problem is connected to regional and global factors that cannot be ignored. As was said by Mr Heisam, who is our main negotiator, inside Syria we observe a certain change of mood. The mood changed in the direction of our position. Perhaps the voice of the people is still not loud enough, but we can hear it more. There is a threat that many fear, and we need a political solution to prevent that threat coming true. Demand for a peaceful political solution exists among the people, among the military, among the very different strata of our society. We want to unite all the people to stop the war.”
“We lost two years repeating the words "go away!", Heisam Al-Manaa says. “We should discuss how to change the existing institutions so that they will not be dictatorial and become democratic. We need to overcome the dictatorial tendencies that exist in Syria. We need to go for a democratic civil society with social harmony. The development of a civil society and democratic institutions are the basis for negotiations. If we have a civil society, all the previous institutions will disappear. If we only say that one particular institution or the president should be removed we limit ourselves to a narrow task.”
