THE POLITICS:THE ESCALATING conflict in Syria has prompted the government to dispatch a letter to the UN Security Council demanding a halt to the flow of arms and funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to insurgents and external opposition groups, and calling for dialogue to end the bloodshed.
Following a meeting with the Chinese ambassador in Damascus, Syrian minister of national reconciliation Ali Haidar said Beijing had expressed willingness to press external powers to halt the flow of weapons and finance to the rebels and to promote dialogue.
The government’s letter echoed an appeal from a gathering of representatives of 10 domestic and external opposition groups hosted by the influential Sant’Egidio community in Rome.
Anas Joudeh, who attended the meeting, said its immediate objective was to “give a voice” to external and domestic opposition groups ignored by the West, which favours the expatriate Syrian National Council (SNC). The ultimate aim was to “create a new current”, not a new faction or front, in the centre, between the regime and the external opposition and rebels.
The Rome gathering issued a 10-point appeal stating that a “military solution is holding the Syrian people hostage and does not offer a political solution” and inviting “all those bearing arms to participate in a political process to establish a peaceful, secure and democratic Syria”.
The gathering rejected the transformation of Syria “into a theatre of regional and international conflict” and called on the international community to reach consensus on a political solution.
Among the 10 signatories of the appeal were Mr Joudeh of Building the Syrian State; veteran dissident Michel Kilo of the Democratic Forum; Haytham Manna of the National Co-ordination Committee for Democratic Change; and Abdelsalam Ahmad of the West Kurdistan Front. The front is highly significant as it controls the Kurdish area in the northeast.
Mr Joudeh said that once these groups agreed on a course of action, they would seek dialogue with the regime, the SNC and the rebel Free Syrian Army.
The “current” plans were to hold a “strategic conference in Syria” before returning to Sant’Egidio in Rome in a month’s time. Unfortunately, he said, the fighting would not stop in the short term because “neither party is ready to step back”.
“For ending the violence and finding a political solution all the parties must be involved, starting with the authorities and ending with the armed rebels.”
Members of the gathering met the Holy See and the US ambassador in Rome, and the chief of the UN monitoring team in Damascus.
Mr Joudeh said many people were talking of “the day after” the regime falls but they failed to work out how to control today’s crisis. “The regime believes in tanks and the other side believes in pistols and bombs.”
Responding to the announcement by veteran opposition activist Haitham Maleh that he had been asked to form a transitional government based in Cairo by the council of revolutionary trustees, Mr Joudeh said: “This has no logic at all and will only complicate matters. I have never heard of this council.”
Two former members of parliament from the ruling Baath Party agree that dialogue is the only solution. The most senior of the two said: “The choice is between dialogue and chaos . . . the government and opposition must sit down immediately and talk.”
He added: “In my view, a new constitution must be drawn up in one month and then there should be parliamentary elections. Not elections like before, real elections supervised by people from all over the world. The new parliament can then choose the president. What we want is real democracy with everyone taking part.”
