Syrian National Council to Echorouk: “Bashar Al Assad is trying to gain time”

Cairo (19/12/2011) – Syria signed an Arab League protocol about the legal framework and the functions of the mission of observers in the Syrian territory.

The AL Secretary General Nabil Al Arabi announced that the first mission will travel to Damascus during the next 72 hours, waiting for the multi-headed delegations in different periods of time.

The Syrian government asserted, in the words of FM Walid Al-Moallim at a press conference in Damascus, that Syria has signed the AL Protocol after the amendments it demanded previously, and there were no changes in the protocol Syria would have refused to sign “whatever the circumstances”, adding that “Syria’s sovereignty is preserved at the core of protocol and coordination with the Syrian government would be complete”.

“Sanctions are supposed to be lifted, but we will it to them and their keenness on the Syrian people, if they are honest”, he asserted.

In defiance to the Arab countries, the Syrian FM said; “If they thought that their economic sanctions will have any impact on Syria, they are wrong and we will not beg anyone”.

On the issue of internalization of the Syria file, he added; “We should not feel afraid of the internalization topic because the western and Arab intentions are clear, it is all about the globalization of the economic sanctions and this is ruled out”.

He added, commenting on the new Russian position; “Coordination with the Russians is a daily work, and there is no change in their position. They advised Syria to sign on the AL Protocol and here is the result”.

In the initial reactions to the Syrian action, and amendments which occurred in the protocol, the spokesman for the Syrian Foreign Ministry told Echorouk that, regardless the Syrian queries and amendments hovering around this initiative; “Now is there a protocol and not a draft protocol”.

For his part, Secretary of the Syrian Military Council Amar Elouaoui told Echorouk that the Syria President Bashar Al Assad launched the initiative of signing the AL Protocol which ask him for stopping the killing of civilians, and the destruction of the hospital Kansaghra in Zaouia, where a lot of dissidents soldiers live, adding that what is expected currently, especially after signing on the AL Protocol, and the amendments which may give him more time to kill civilians and implement his plans. He asserted that Bashar Al Assad accepts to sign in order to gain more time to hide his massacres before international observers reach the Syrian soil for the first time.

In a related context, the Syrian Transitional Council, which held its first congress in Tunis, in the words of Mohamed Farouk Taifour, member of the council, said that “things are still vague”, especially as “Assad promises to evade responsibilities”, adding that “The signing came to gain more time hoping to stop the revolution. Another method by the Syrian regime to eliminate the rebels, and another way to process the embarrassment of this regime”.