Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Geneva, SANA-Head of the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic to the Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva, Bashar al-Jaafari, said on Wednesday that the delegation presented to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan di Mistura important ideas and notions in order to reach a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria.
Al-Jaafari said “We provided the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura with important ideas and opinions. We call them Basic Elements for a political settlement. These elements reflect what is shared by everybody in Syria,” adding that “One Basic Element is how to keep Syria together for the Syrians without any divisive approach,” al-Jaafari said.
“Until now, the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic doesn’t know who will be the other side in dialogue, we have to put, with di Mistura and other delegations, a firm ground to specify who will be considered a partner,” al-Jaafari told SPUTNIK news Agency in a statement.
“We need to work out together with the Special Envoy a solid ground with regard to who are other delegations. We still do not know how many delegations will be at the talks. We still don’t know who are these ghosts with whom we are supposed to engage into indirect talks. Something is lacking in the complete picture,” Jaafari said.
He added “We moved today into deeper discussion with di Mistura regarding the ideas and points that we have, he needs some clarifications and we will return to him on Friday with the answers regarding the issue,” pointing out that suggestions of the delegation of Syrian Arab Republic reflect the opinion of all Syrians.
Al-Jaafari affirmed the need to draw a line between terrorism and the political participation, calling on the United Nations to create a special mechanism to monitor and prevent irresponsible behavior or statements from the opposition delegations because some of these statements could undermine the progress achieved in the talks.
Al-Jaafari affirmed that moving from the indirect talks into the direct ones is not possible as irresponsible persons in the opposition delegations continue uttering statements that contradict the UN Security Council resolutions regarding the crisis in Syria.
“There is a problem represented by how to observe and control irresponsible statements that occur here and there by the so-called delegation the Saudi group,” al-Jaafari said.
He added that the other issue that the delegation discussed with di Mistura is to oblige all to adhere to liberating the occupied Syria Golan.
In a relevant context, al-Jaafari called for lifting the economic sanctions imposed on the Syrian people, stressing that these sanctions were not imposed by the UN Security Council, therefore they are “illegal.”
We informed the Special Envoy that “we want from all, if they were Syrians, to join their voices to those of the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic to lift these illegal measures imposed on the Syrian people”.
In an interview with Russia Today, al-Jaafari pointed out that de Mistura’s mission is applying the task mandated to him by the Security Council as he is a mediator, who does not have the right to make decision in this dialogue but rather he could help in exchanging ideas and we have helped him through presenting a package of ideas to promote in this dialogue.
“If there were a patriotic opposition indeed, it should not refer to itself as Astana group, Riyadh group, Tal Aviv group or Amman group…It is a shame,” al-Jaafari said.
“We are meant to find solutions to the sufferings of the Syrian people and that could not be done through manipulation or delusion but rather through transparency and honesty and through giving the representative status to as broad of the opposition spectra as possible for settling the problem yet what is going on in Syria is a proxy war”.
He stressed that the UNSC counterterrorism-related resolutions in the case of Syria prohibit any figure whether a person, a state or entity to incite acts of terrorism, wondering” how could we make peace with a person -supposed to be “a chief negotiator” of the different side while he threatens of terrorist acts and is known for his past rich with acts like encaging women in iron cages and marching with the cages in the streets of Douma town in Damascus Countryside?”
“Constitutionally, it is the duty of the Syrian government to eliminate terrorism from all the Syrian territories and that is why there is no contradiction between the political and military tracks and the government’s engagement in dialogue in Geneva came for gathering all the Syrians around one agenda”, al-Jaafari said, adding that “the operations of the Army and Armed Forces allowed us to have more “stock” in the process of political dialogue.”
Answering a question on whether countries have a good understanding of the Syrian stance, al-Jaafari said that the Arab dimension is not that important because of its deterioration due to the hegemony of some Gulf countries on the decision-making of the Arab League, adding “we have never suffered from isolation in New York as we were able to break isolation and isolated those who attempted to isolate us and there are many western states which deal with respect and credibility with us… they contact us directly although some of them had shut down their embassies in Damascus.”
“All know what is going on in Syria as they are supposed to have realized the cost of what has happened to Libya, Iraq, Sudan and other countries in the world” al-Jaafari said adding, the political changes in stances are based on the resilience of the Syrian Army and leadership in the face of pressures and attempts of destroying the Syrian state.
He clarified that the sides targeting Syria want to transform Syria into a failed state.
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