Firas Qassas: Saving Syria requires supporting; preserving AANES' project

Syrian opponent figure Firas Qassas affirmed that “the regime and the opposition” have caused the Syrian crisis to deepen and prolong, pointing out that the United Nations and its organizations are hostage to the interests of the great powers, and he considered that talk about the “Constitutional Committee” is worthless. The project of Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria must be supported and preserved.

Firas Qassas: Saving Syria requires supporting; preserving AANES' project
6 Decemberember 2023   03:10
NEWS DESK, YAHAY AL-HABIB

The Syrian crisis is still continuing without a solution on the horizon, due to the failure of both parties to the conflict to come to terms. The Damascus government and the so-called opposition are responsible. With their steps and movements, they threaten the unity of Syrian territory and continue the violence that has caused huge human losses in addition to the destruction of infrastructure.

What increases the suffering of the Syrians is the international and regional conflict taking place in the Syrian arena, in addition to the ambitions of the Turkish occupation state in Syrian lands, which has intensified its attacks on NE, Syria over the past days, targeting cars, infrastructure, and services that benefit the region’s residents.

Despite this, the role of the international community and its organizations, specifically the United Nations, remains weak and does not contribute to alleviating the suffering of the Syrians.

In clear contradiction, the United Nations representative to Syria, Geir Pedersen, made statements during the past few days in which he indicated that the solution in Syria is far from reach, but at the same time he said that there is an imminent meeting of the so-called Constitutional Committee.

The "regime and the opposition" have deepened the Syrian crisis

The Syrian opponent figure, Firas Qassas, spoke about this by saying: “In fact, these statements reflect the miserable situation in which international efforts are going to implement a political solution by working on the constitutional track. The futility of these efforts, their failure, and their inability to achieve any progress on this track have become clear.” Certainly, the path towards implementing the international resolution and moving forward towards a political solution in Syria seems long and arduous, and one cannot expect any tangible change in the direct or near term.”

Regarding the reasons for the Syrian situation reaching this state, Qassas explained that they are “many and different; the opposition political forces that still considered its selves on the revolution and the movement were unable to manage the revolutionary file that is pervasive and looming over the country, so they were unable to direct and lead it in accordance with the principles announced by those who launched the event.” Syria at the time, and at the same time the Syrian regime was able to create social polarization around what was happening in the country, which it benefited from and exploited as a tyrannical authority should do, and thus we reached this difficult situation.”

He added, "In my estimation, this great failure and inability, with a rooted origin linked to the opposition on the one hand and the regime on the other hand, is what allowed the following difficult causes to take effect and take their role in suspending, alleviating and stagnating the Syrian crisis in the way we see it now. I refer here, of course, to the ability of the international factor to monopolizing the path to resolving the crisis and making the possibility of resolving it later dependent on him, only when he is ready for that, and now he is not ready for this resolution, unfortunately.”

The Constitutional Committee... tools without a soul

Regarding the so-called Constitutional Committee, Qassas pointed out that “there is no value, not only in talking about the Constitutional Committee, but also about the Constitutional Committee itself, as it, whether it is from the party that represents the regime or the party that represents the opposition, is merely people and helpless tools without will or spirit, waiting , according to its part, achieves the interest of wasting time on behalf of its operators, until the international factor matures and both of the decisive parties in the Syrian file become ready to negotiate the implementation of the resolution. Only then will we witness a solution and an imposition of the implementation of the international resolution in Syria. I mean the Russian side and the American side, and the matter is still pending now. Because of the Russian war on Ukraine, and its resolution has an important and pivotal role in reaching the activation of the international resolution in Syria.”

  Regarding the role of the United Nations in Syria, Qassas pointed out that “neither the Secretary-General, nor all the administrative bodies, nor Pedersen can make any progress in the Syrian file, because their roles and most of the United Nations agencies and employees, with the exception of the Security Council, which embodies the interests and wills of the great powers, are They are merely administrative, coordination, and compromise roles that cannot, in their entirety, change anything in the equations of reality or the wills of power that could impose a solution at any time.”

A threat to the state and society, and the solution is to support the AANES project

Regarding what is needed to save Syria, Qassas said: “On my behalf and from the position of opposing tyranny and believing in the experience of Democratic Autonomous Administration, which calls for democratic modernity and a democratic participatory society, especially since I have detailed the subjective obstacles related to the regime and the opposition, and the objective obstacles related to Turkey, Iran, and Russia and the latter’s raging crisis.” Now about defining the nature of the international system, I say that saving the country requires the empowerment and success of the project that we believe in and are working for in NE, Syria. The values of coexistence and recognition of the other, ethnic, religious, sectarian, gender, tribal, and regional, and the values of empowering women and achieving the power equation without domination or marginalization that they achieve the value of managing society for itself, starting from the smallest social unit, are the values that the institutions of Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria declare that they represent and raise their ceiling.”

He added, "It must be achieved, and in this context, we must talk about the necessity of succeeding in reviving politics and political action throughout the country, by returning them to the public field and resolving the equation of freedom in the realm of necessity by establishing the philosophical value of the individual as the basis for any freedom and for any modern political meeting."

Qassas pointed out that “the picture of the solution for Syria that we are looking forward to will not be complete with the fall of the Assad regime, the implementation of the political solution, and the establishment of a decentralized, pluralistic, democratic state. Rather, challenges and difficulties of a different kind may begin. When the political transition is accomplished, the country will be placed on a correct and portable path.” In the process of a difficult and complex peaceful conflict, in which Syrian parties interact with different experiences, backgrounds, wills and interests that have not known political action on the ground, have not tested the values of preserving the public interest, and have not yet been liberated from their “deadly” identities, according to Amin al-Maalouf’s expression.

He continued in this context, “Therefore, this conflict and its outcomes will move to extremely difficult levels, under which the fate of the state and society may be threatened, and it may take decades until we reach the Syria we want, and we have no choice but to look at the situation of Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, and other countries so that we can contemplate, think, and analyze.” However, this should not deviate us from achieving the most important step now in the future of the country, which is achieving political transition, defending our project of Democratic Autonomous Administration, and trying to transfer its principles to the entire country. Our success at this level will make us and our children after us ready to succeed in bringing Syria and its people to a new state. Where dignity, justice and respect for human rights, to freedom in its broad and comprehensive meanings, to modernity and democracy.”

T/ Satt.

ANHA