Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad cannot be part of any political solution to resolve the crisis created by his regime, the Anadolu Agency reported United Nations Security Council President François Delattre saying yesterday.
“There can be no solution in Syria with Bashar Al-Assad, this is quite clear,” Delattre told reporters in New York. “The head of the Syrian regime, we have to remember the basics of the situation, is responsible for principally 220,000 deaths in the conflict. Bashar Al-Asad and ISIS terrorists support each other and we’ve said several times that in our view they are two sides of the same coin. They feed off each other.”
“So to think that Bashar can be an alternative to terrorism is really a moral and political nonstarter, it doesn’t make any sense. The longer he stays in power, in our view, the more radicalised the Syrian population is going to become,” he added.
Delattre blamed the Assad regime for UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura’s failed efforts to freeze the conflict in Aleppo.
“France remains sceptical as to the goodwill of the regime; Bashar Al-Assad is proposing truces while at the same time he is stepping up his bombing campaigns,” Delattre explained.
Regarding bringing an end to the conflict, Delattre said: “There is no military solution in Syria, there needs to be agreement. So there needs, in our view, to be a solution that would preserve the unity of Syria and that will respect all the communities that make up this country.”
“It is important that we build brick by brick the elements for a political future by encouraging and bringing together the moderate opposition in Syria and also trying to bring together all the countries of the region and the international community that are working together for a political solution to the Syrian issue.”
In a statement last week, Syrian opposition groups said that they insists on having President Bashar Al-Assad removed from power as the basic condition to engaging in any political settlement in Syria.
According to the United Nations statistics, the Syrian conflict, which is nearing its fifth year, has left some 200,000 people dead and made 10 million more refugees.