Assad Outlines New Syrian Solution: Stop Arming Terrorists First

Assad waved to a cheering, chanting crowd as he strode to the stage at Dar al-Assad Centre for Culture and Arts in Damascus.

In his speech, Assad said the first part of apolitical solution would require regional powers to “stop funding and arming militant groups, which will be followed by a halt in our security forces’ crackdown against them, a mechanism to monitor such a truce would be established,” he said, stressing on the importance of controlling the borders.

“This will be followed by a national reconciliation conference that will produce a national pact that would be voted on by the people. This in turn will be followed by a constitution, which will also be subject to the people’s vote. ”

After the referendum, parliamentary polls would be held, followed by the formation of a wide representative government which would then oversee new elections, a new constitution and general amnesty, Assad addressed the audience whom frequently broke out in cheers and applause. He stressed that transition must be through constitutional means only.

We Dialogue with the Masters, Not Slaves

The government, the Syrian President said, would then step up contacts to convene a national dialogue conference with the government’s opponents “from inside and outside” the country, who do not take orders from abroad. “We never rejected a political solution … but with whom should we talk? With those who have extremist ideology who only understand the language of terrorism?” he said. “Or should we negotiate with puppets whom the West brought. …   We dialogue with the master not with the slave.”

Assad stressed on battling the terrorists line in line with a political solution. “Reforms are required in one hand, and battling terrorism in the other. If we chose political solution firstly, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t defend ourselves.”

“Just because we have not found a partner, it does not mean we are not interested in a political solution, but that we did not find a partner,” he said.

State of War

Assad made it clear that the crisis in Syria was an opportunity to transfer a “huge number of terrorists to turn Syria into a ‘land of Jihad’”. “We are facing a state of war in every sense of the word,” the president assured.

“Is this a revolution and are these revolutionaries? By God I say they are a bunch of criminals,” he said. “They killed the intellectuals in order to afflict ignorance on us. They attacked the infrastructure in order to make our life difficult, they deprived children from school in order to bring the country backward.”

He added: “The enemies of the people are the enemies of God, and the enemies of God will burn in hell.”

Assad said that the homeland is not for those who lived in, but for those who defended it, stressing that any attempt to entangle Palestinians in the crisis aims at deviating the compass from the real enemy.

“The conflict in Syria is between the nation and its enemies, the citizen and those who are depriving him from his bread,” he said, stressing that Syria will remain a “free and sovereign state that will not be subject to foreign hegemony. This spurned the West to target the resistance axis.”

We Accept Advice, Not Orders

Assad appealed to all Syrians to join together to defend the nation. “Nation is for everybody, everybody should defend it. Being negative and waiting for others to solve the problem is running into the abyss.”

The president, who was frequently interrupted by chants of “With our soul, with our blood we sacrifice ourselves for you O Bashar”, stressed throughout his speech that the Syrian people must decide their future alone. “Everyone who comes to Syria knows that Syria accepts advice but not orders.”

Assad thanked Russia, China, Iran and everyone who rejected foreign interference in Syrian affairs.

He also greeted Syrian army, officers and everyone who defended the homeland, paying tribute to all martyrs whose blood had overthrown the ‘fake western-‘Spring’, which he described as a ‘soap bubble’.