Barsoum: Russia must turn its words into action

 Recently, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, made statements about the Constitutional Committee, in which he said: “If we are talking about constitutional reform, we support the participation of Kurdish representatives in the process as well, and this will prevent any accusations of secession, so we support that the Syrians find, regardless of their sectarian or ethnic affiliations, compromise solutions in their relations, based on the principles of preserving the unity and sovereignty of the Syrian territories.

 On the other hand, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, through the Deputy Department of Foreign Relations, Fanar Al-Kait, renewed its full readiness for any efforts to ensure the achievement of the Syrian solution and consensus, and said: "While we see Mr. Bogdanov's statement as positive and encouraging, we renew our position in our full readiness for any efforts.  We also affirm that Russia has an important role in this framework; we welcome its role as a guarantor of all Syrian efforts that lead to stability and any other efforts to contribute in this field, with our full affirmation that we are not with any prejudice to Syrian geographical and social unity.

 The co-chair of the Syriac Union Party, Sanharib Barsoum, stressed in an interview with our agency, "Russia has an important role in the Syrian political process, but we have not yet found any seriousness to play a consensual role between the Syrian parties to reach a Syrian political solution."

 Limiting the AANES project to Kurds only is incorrect

 Sanharib Barsoum explained that the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria represents all components, parties, and entities in the region and is part of the Syrian geography, despite that, it is outside the political process.

 Turning to the statements made by the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, he said: "They must have a positive rapprochement with the Autonomous Administration and its components, and toward this administrative model through which we call for building a decentralized Syria. Restricting the Autonomous Administration project to Kurds only is not  true, it is a manipulation of what exists on the ground. Of course, we support the rights of the Kurds, but there are other components such as Syriacs, Assyrians and Arabs. There is an administrative model that we want to be the basis for building a future Syria."

 Bogdanov's statements are a blow to the AANES project

 Barsoum stressed the need to deal with the political process as it is, and not to be fragmented, and said: "His (Bogdanov) statements are a blow to the administration project, a fragmentation of unity among the components, and a real manipulation even of the Kurds and the Kurdish parties."

 Barsoum continued, "We call for us to be part of the political process that takes place under the supervision of the United Nations, and we recognize International Resolution 2254, and we urge all Syrian states and parties to implement it and that there be a fair representation of all parties to the Syrian opposition in these meetings and the exclusion of the Autonomous Administration undermines  the Syrian political process, and any solution that emerges from these meetings will be incomplete and will lead to more conflicts between the Syrian parties.”

 Barsoum noted that the political process regarding Syria is now almost frozen, saying: "Since the start of the meetings of the Constitutional Committee, until now, there has been no progress. There is procrastination, especially on the part of the Syrian regime, which does not want a new constitution or democratic elections, and this is announced by it.  In fact, the regime sees that the only solution is through reconciliation and a security and military solution, and this is what we see in several Syrian regions, and it does not serve the general Syrian people, nor does it lead to a final and just solution.

 The most important results of the Astana alliance

 In a related context, Sanharib Barsoum linked the statements issued by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Damascus government, Faisal Miqdad, accusing the people of northern and eastern Syria at times of being "separatists" and other times of "terrorists", with the Astana axis, and explained: "In the beginning there was an Astana alliance between Russia, Iran and Turkey  and these countries have interests and goals and would like to achieve them, and each country takes into account the interests of the other, in particular, Iran and Turkey, which do not want to achieve democracy in Syria and the success of the North and East Syria project, so they accuse (terrorists and separatists) to undermine the democratic project, and pass their projects and agendas that we know  well, each of them seeks to implement its plans," stressing that "(Iran and Turkey) are the main impediments to the Syrian political solution, and Russia is in line with them to serve their interests."

 Barsoum touched on the results of the Astana "alliance", saying: "We have found the results of this alliance. A demographic change has been brought about, and many Syrian regions have been occupied, and the Syrians' tragedies and displacements have increased, and the political solution has been disrupted."

 Sanharib Barsoum stressed the need for Russia to turn its words into actions, and work to advance the political process with the participation of all Syrian political parties, especially the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

 Barsoum indicated that Russia is making statements that do not reflect reality, saying: "More than a year ago, we had a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and within the meeting he stressed the need to involve the Syrian Democratic Council in the political process in Geneva."

 Sanharib Barsoum stressed, "In order to find a final, real, complete and democratic political solution in Syria, there must be consideration for all Syrian democratic parties, their involvement in the political process and pressure on the regime to make the concessions required of it."

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 ANHA