Al-Jaafari: “We Came to Geneva to Test the Will of So-called Opposition Coalition’s Operators

GENEVA- Geneva 2 talks between the Syrian official delegation and the so-called “opposition Coalition” delegation, haven’t yet dealt with core issues, said Bashar al-Jaafari, Syria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, pointing out that the past three days focused only on reaching a draft agenda that facilitates discussing the main items.

 Interviewed by “al-Mayadeen” TV, al-Jaafari stressed that the agenda should be agreed on before tackling any item in order to get fruitful and constructive discussions.

He said that the Syrian government delegation’s participation in the Geneva2 conference was based on an international approach that aimed to implement the principles of Geneva1 Communiqué without any unilateral interpretations that lead to misunderstanding.

Al-Jaafari added that the UN Syria Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, has proposed a draft agenda with certain sequence of items, the first focuses on ending violence and fighting terrorism, the second deals with the transitional government, the third calls for maintaining the state institutions and the fourth concentrates on national dialogue and reconciliation.

“By doing this, Brahimi recognizes that there is terrorism in Syria and that fighting this terrorism should be a priority not only of the Syrian people, but of Geneva conference too,” al-Jaafari said ,pointing out that later, Brahimi proposed that “we discuss the issue of fighting terrorism in parallel with the issue of transitional government.”

Al-Jaafari clarified that the other side doesn’t want to recognize the sovereignty of the Syrian state, because it refuses to urge Turkey to halt providing logistic facilitation to the terrorists to let them inter Syria.
“The so-called opposition coalition denies terrorism in Syria and the existence of the terrorist organizations of al-Qaeda, al-Nousra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in the country, despite the fact that the entire world has recognized this and warned against its dangers.” he added. 

The UN Syria Representative said Geneva1 communiqué mentioned nothing about the President’s authorities or about a constitutional vacuum, because these are things to be decided by the Syrian people not by Geneva communiqué.

He added that “the so-called opposition coalition hallucinates that Geneva conference’s goal is to hand power over to its members by the current Syrian government and to give them the authority to form the transitional body they are talking about.”

Al-Jaafari referred to the weak representation of the opposition parties in the so-called “opposition coalition”, but, “we came to Geneva to test the will of those who master, operate and dictate this coalition.”

“We came to make Geneva conference a success, but if it failed, it would be the mistake of the other side, which came with a wrong map and did not respect the required lines of balance,” a;-Jaafari said.

“We won’t withdraw from the talks. We only withdraw when Brahimi himself withdraws.”

Al-Jaafari stressed that the United States is not serious about pushing the efforts towards a peaceful political solution to the crisis in Syria, as it has announced the willing to resume its arms support to what it called “moderate opposition”. 

He pointed out that the US plans to hold the Syrian government responsible for the failure of Geneva meetings and later bring the Syrian file to the Security Council to adopt resolutions under Chapter VII and consequently use military force against Syria.

Al-Jaafari stressed the firm and clear Chinese and Russian stances on the crisis in Syria and hailed them as objective.

H. Mustafa