Europeans have begun feeling the inconvenience of their political stance: Minister al-Zou’bi

 DAMASCUS, (ST) — European leaders have begun experiencing difficulties over their political stance on Syria, Minister of Information Omran al-Zoubi said Tuesday.

“Europeans have begun feeling the inconvenience of their political stance, based on their actions against the Syrian state,” Minister al-Zoubi told RIA Novosti.

According to the minister, the reason for this is “not the recognition of their own erroneous actions but a fear for their own safety” after January’s terror attack against French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

 Damascus has, right from the beginning of the conflict “warned that such a political approach to Syria will bear consequences like these,” minister al-Zoubi said according to Sputnik news website.

In 2011, the European Union froze financial and technical assistance programs with Syria and imposed several rounds of sanctions.

“European leaders thought that the Syrian government would fall apart, that the political foundations of the government would fall,” Zoubi said, adding that “today, they have realized that things are not as they thought.”

Yesterday, the Syrian government said that the success of a U.N. bid to freeze fighting in Aleppo hinged on whether foreign states that back the insurgents can get them to comply, and that no time frame had been set for the proposed ceasefire.

In an interview with Reuters, Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi also said Syrian army progress against the Islamic State militant group far outstripped anything accomplished by a U.S.-led alliance that has ruled out the idea of partnering with Damascus.

Pursuing a truce in the northern city of Aleppo, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday that Damascus was willing to suspend aerial bombardment and artillery shelling so a local ceasefire could be tested in the city, where both jihadists and other insurgents are battling the army and allied forces.

Asked whether the ceasefire would work, Zoabi said: “The success of any effort related to the war on Syria depends on the capacity of the parties that finance the armed terrorist groups to control them, deter them, and halt their actions and massacres against civilians.”

Zoabi said he was referring to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and Jordan: “Talking about freezing shelling is part of a freeze of fighting, meaning this freeze in fighting is the responsibility of all the armed parties in Aleppo,” Zoabi said.

“The Syrian government is still studying what Mr. de Mistura said … and when he comes to Damascus there will be clear and precise answers from the Syrian government.”

Zoabi said the army was making progress throughout Syria, including in eastern areas where Islamic State expanded last year after seizing the Iraqi city of Mosul.

 “What the Syrian army is accomplishing on a daily basis is many, many times more important than everything that the so-called alliance against terrorism is doing,” said Zoabi.

“The Syrian army is also using its warplanes against Daesh, using its weapons, its military plans against Daesh and has more experience in the field on the ground in fighting Daesh and the Nusra Front,” said Zoabi. Daesh is an acronym for Islamic State.

M. Al-Ibrahim