One day before the 32nd Arab League Summit kicked off in the Saudi city of Jeddah, Syria civil bodies and activists issued a statement reminding world leaders and regional and international NGOs of their complete rejection for the participation of the head of the Assad regime in it. The statement came as part of a media campaign under the hashtag #CriminalAssadNeverRepresentsSyria.
“the Arab League has rewarded the Assad regime for its brutal crimes against the Syrians, and impunity from any accountability”
Here is the full text of the statement:
The Syrian people strongly condemn the Arab League’s acceptance of the return of the head of the criminal regime to occupy Syria’s seat as the regime of Bashar al-Assad has killed, arrested and displaced millions of Syrians, destroyed cities and villages and mortgaged the country’s resources to the Russian and Iranian occupation.
The reasons that led to the suspension of the Assad regime’s membership in the Arab League and the severance of the relations with it by the Arab brothers and other countries 12 years ago are still present. These reasons have rather intensified and multiplied. This step is at the expense of the Syrian blood and the huge sacrifices made by the Syrian people to achieve their freedom and dignity.
“The normalization will also encourage the regime to spread chaos and keep sending massive shipments of drugs to neighbouring countries, with the aim of more extortion and gains at the expense of the security and safety of people”
The Arab League’s decision stands against the toppling the regime of of oppression and tyranny. In this step, the Arab League has rewarded the Assad regime for its brutal crimes against the Syrians, and impunity from any accountability. It will encourage the regime to commit more crimes. All those who stand behind this normalization and empowerment will bear responsibility before history and before Syrians.
The Syrian people strongly reject this step, not only from a moral and principled perspective, or fraternal ties that bind Arab brothers, but from a purely practical political point of view. The regime that used chemical weapons, committed documented war crimes against Syrian civilians, and brought in the Iranian and the Russian occupation for Assad to stay in power, is not only illegitimate, but is practically and realistically incapable of observing any obligations or interests of the neighboring countries and other parties; this regime lost any real ability and credibility to take decisions as they are made by Iran and Russia. The regime does not really control the land that it claims to rule. The regime has no right to represent Syria or speak on its behalf.
“any process of normalization with the regime would kill the political process completely and deter Syrians from returning to a place where unknown fate is waiting for them”
The policy of normalization and impunity from accountability will not push the Assad regime to change its criminal behavior; it will rather send it a clear message that all crimes and extermination are permissible. The normalization will encourage the regime to continue in its bloody course of action as it feels immune. The normalization will also encourage the regime to spread chaos and keep sending massive shipments of drugs to neighbouring countries, with the aim of more extortion and gains at the expense of the security and safety of people.
It is an illusion to believe that Syrian refugees will return if normalization takes place with the criminal Assad regime that displaced them. On the contrary, any process of normalization with the regime would kill the political process completely and deter Syrians from returning to a place where unknown fate is waiting for them in the dungeons of the Assad security branches and his human slaughterhouses, in a Syria that has been turned into a rogue drug state that threatens the future of Syrians and the security and stability of the region.
Normalizing the relations with Assad or shoring his regime will not deter Syrians from their right to resist this junta, in addition to the Iranian and Russian occupiers
We assure the brotherly Arab countries in particular and the international community in general that the solution to the Syrian issue does not pass through a process of normalization with a criminal regime rejected by its people. This regime has proven to be a source of threat to stability and a window for Iran’s expansionist project that will not stop despite temporary Arab understandings.
We also affirm in that our revolution, our struggle to achieve freedom, and to end the rule of the criminal Assad regime are all legitimate until accomplished. Normalizing the relations with Assad or shoring his regime will not deter Syrians from their right to resist this junta, in addition to the Iranian and Russian occupiers.
Long live a free and proud Syria, and victory belongs to our revolution.
Issued on Thursday, May 18, 2023.
