‘Assad must go to save Syria from intervention’ — RT News

‘Assad must go to save Syria from intervention’ — RT News

‘Assad must go to save Syria from intervention’

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Published time: February 15, 2012 09:03
Edited time: February 15, 2012 13:03

Syrian tanks are seen in Bab Amro near the city of Homs February 12, 2012. (Reuters / Mulham Alnader/Handout)

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Syrian President Bashar Assad should resign if he doesn’t want to repeat the fate of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, while Russia and China should help him to do so, the Middle East expert Tariq Ali told RT.

British historian and journalist Ali considers it unlikely that Syrian president will step down on his own accord.

“He has to be pushed out,” Tariq Ali insists, for which “the Syrian people are doing their best”.

Pressure is being mounted outside Syria by Turkey and NATO for intervention – that would be disastrous and bring enormous bloodshed, like in Libya, believes Tariq Ali.

The expert says both Assad and his father have spilled enough Syrian blood and that “this family is unacceptable”.

“Syria needs a non-sectarian national government to prepare a new constitution," Tariq Ali stressed.

He expressed hope that all the most influential parties, like Russia, China, Iran and even Hezbollah must realize that it is time for President Assad to go and to do so, no peacekeeping force is needed.

Tariq Ali agrees that mounting international pressure on Bashar Assad is needed because simple economic sanctions will not bring the desired results. Countries like Iran and China would not abide them, so it is time for Russia and China to realize they need Assad no more.

He believes that once Assad falls, the new government will keep good relations with Iran, because this will be in the interest of the new democratic government.

“If the Assad clan refuses to relinquish their stronghold on the country, sooner or later something disastrous will happen,” Tariq Ali predicts, threatening a foreign intervention and recalling the inglorious deaths of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi lynched by mobs inspired by the west.

“That is the future that stares them in the face, there is no other future,” Tariq Ali said.

“The fact is that the overwhelming majority of people in Syria want the Assad family out – and that is the key thing that we have to understand and he [Assad] should understand,” Tariq Ali claims.

He also warns about letting Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood take control of the Syrian government. Even if it becomes a moderate one, religious minorities will most probably be targeted to divert attention from economic and social problems.

Assad will die like Gaddafi – Syrian opposition — RT News

Assad will die like Gaddafi – Syrian opposition — RT News

Assad will die like Gaddafi – Syrian opposition

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Published time: January 31, 2012 11:37
Edited time: January 31, 2012 21:13

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) and First Lady Asma al-Assad arrive at Al-Jalaa Stadium in Damascus (AFP Photo / Str)

A leading member of the Syrian opposition has threatened President Assad, his British wife and three children with a bloody Gaddafi-esque end. Meanwhile, the West continues to push for a resolution to help the Syrian opposition oust Assad.

Haitham Maleh, a founding member of the executive committee of the Syrian National Council, made the shocking comment in an interview with The Telegraph newspaper. He declared that as soon as Assad’s regime falls, the opposition will have its way with him.

"Assad and his family will be killed in Syria. Their next steps will be very bloody," he said. "Two months ago we offered him the option to leave us alone and go, but instead he went for the blood of his people. The end for him will be that he is killed like Gaddafi."

Yet Mr Maleh’s call for a gruesome death for President Assad and his wife and children has thus far met with a wall of silence – despite the invocation of the summary execution of the late Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi, whose son also met a violent death during the  NATO-backed conflict.

“We came, we saw, he died," joked Hillary Clinton after Gaddafi’s death. It now looks very much as if the scenario is repeating itself, with Clinton saying the US will throw its weight behind the Arab-backed condemnation of Assad's regime, which she said was brutally blocking the country's hopes of peacefully transitioning to democracy.

Maleh’s comments give cause for great concern about what form democracy may take in SNC-ruled Syria.

While Russia tries to broker peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition, Maleh casually dismisses its efforts, saying the talks will not materialize.

“How can we have dialogue with a criminal regime? We can't do it now," he told The Telegraph. "The game is over. How can we talk with a person who has put a pistol to our heads. It is impossible to make dialogue with this person.”

There have been numerous reports of Bashar al-Assad’s wife and other family members making attempts to leave the embattled country, but being ambushed en route to the airport by opposition forces who forced them to turn around. Now, it seems, Assad’s family is on the opposition’s hit-list.The next attempt might prove to be fatal.

Asma Assad grew up in the UK and her friends say they are sure she is repulsed by the violence currently gripping Syria.

"She would be horrified with what is happening," said Malik al-Abdeh, a TV magnate speaking to The Times. "She lived most of her life here. Her ethics and morality were formed here. I think she must be genuinely shocked."

However her pro-Western views are no longer of any importance. It seems all the opposition wants now is revenge.

Assad must go, no foreign forces in Syria: UNSC draft — RT News

Assad must go, no foreign forces in Syria: UNSC draft — RT News

Assad must go, no foreign forces in Syria: UNSC draft

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Published time: January 31, 2012 07:27
Edited time: January 31, 2012 22:34

The United Nations headquarters in New York (AFP Photo / Don Emmert)

The UN draft resolution on Syria reportedly calls for President Assad to hand power over to his deputy in 15 days or face “further measures”. It also clarifies that no foreign forces will be deployed to the country.

The draft, obtained by the Guardian, emphasized any punitive measures would be peaceful.

It also demands the Syrian government put “an end to all human rights violations and attacks against those exercising their rights to freedom of expression.”

The resolution is set to be debated by the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday. Further negotiations at the council will take place Wednesday, and a vote is expected on Thursday.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow has no intentions of telling President Assad to step down.

“Russian politics is not to ask someone to resign,” he told Australia’s ABC TV channel. “Regime change is not our profession,” the minister added.

He also rejected out of hand any accusation that Russia unconditionally supports the Syrian leader. “We are not President Assad’s friends or allies,” he stressed. Lavrov made it clear earlier on Tuesday that Assad’s continuing tenure as president is not a precondition for a settlement in Syria.

The resolution fails to take account of the positions of countries like Russia and China, which have presented a united front opposing regime change in Damascus.

Moscow says the new resolution contains a threat to “adopt further measures if Syria does not comply with the terms of the resolution,” opening the door to a Libya-style foreign intervention in the conflict-torn Middle Eastern country.

Lavrov said the UN Security Council would never support a tour de force against Syria.

“If [the Syrian] opposition refuses to sit at a negotiation table with the regime – what is the alternative? To bomb the regime? I’ve seen that before,” Lavrov said, “I guarantee the Security Council will never approve this.”

Reportedly, tensions are running so high that the US Secretary of State’s spokeswoman has accused Russian FM Sergey Lavrov, who is currently visiting Australia, of being unavailable by phone when Hillary Clinton allegedly called him to discuss the situation.

Syrian opposition’s hardline trade-off

Bashar Assad’s resignation is a non-negotiable precondition for talks on ending the bloody crisis engulfing Syria. Head of the opposition Syrian National Council Burhan Ghalioun stressed there could be “No negotiations without Assad’s exit.”

While Damascus accepted a Moscow proposal to host informal talks with all parties without any conditions, the Syrian opposition rejected Russia’s approach outright.

Burhan Ghalioun told the Lebanese Daily Star that Moscow has the power to urge Assad to leave, and offered to confirm the status of Russia’s naval base in Tartus in return.

Author and Middle East expert John Bradley told RT the National Council is now a pawn in greater Middle East game: “NATO is determined to bring the Assad regime to its knees as a prelude to invading Iran. The Syrian opposition is under huge pressure from outside powers who want these talks [between the Assad regime and the opposition] to fail even before they begin – most obviously NATO”.

The resolution on Syria has been worked out with no Russian participation whatsoever. Because Russia’s concerns were not taken into account, the resolution is one-dimensional, says Konstantin Kosachev, Deputy Chief of the Russian State Duma Committee for International Affairs.

“This draft resolution is addressed towards just one part of the conflict, namely President Assad and his government, to force them to resign. This undermines any perspective for a political solution to the crisis,”Kosachev said.

As well as rejecting peace talks, the Syrian opposition has gone so far as to state that President Assad and his family have lost their chance to make a peaceful exit, in an ultimatum which made reference to the brutal killing of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya last year.

Kosachev believes the Syrian opposition is simply listening to the message coming from abroad, from Washington or Brussels.  This message has always been “’this regime does not have a future, don’t talk to them’ – this message is wrong.”

The result of such a stance will be clashes, casualties and blood, Kosachev predicted, “But not due to Russia’s position, but due to the very unilateral and unfair position taken by the US and their allies.”