EVEN as helpless civilians, including children, were gasping for life in rebel-held Aleppo from the effects of chlorine gas-filled bombs dropped on them by Assad’s air force, the opposition put forward a plan for political transition to end five years of savagery.
As recently as a year ago, this latest war crime by the Assad regime might have brought such an outraged reaction from the opposition, that all thought of talks would have been suspended. It is a sign of the depths of savagery and despair into which Assad and Daesh (the so-called IS) terrorists have plunged this beautiful country that the opposition hardly blinked, but carried on with the presentation of their plan. Put bluntly, one more vile act by Assad and his butchers is neither here nor there against the urgent need to end this bloody conflict.
The scheme put forward by the High Negotiations Committee, the umbrella group which brings together the political and armed opposition is that there would be a full ceasefire to be followed by six months of negotiations.
At the end of this period, Assad would cede power to a unity government drawn from all communities within Syria. This administration would then govern for 18 months, during which its primary task would be the organization of elections though it ought surely also be giving attention to the drafting of a workable new constitution.
There is an important lesson here from Libya, where an interim parliament was elected in 2012 with the prime task of drafting a constitution.
Tragically for Libyans, the parliament almost immediately fell to bickering and moderate politicians walked out leaving the chamber dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. These legislators began passing a series of controversial laws and did absolutely nothing about the constitution. The bitter divisions this abuse of power caused have effectively brought Libya to the brink of civil war today.
It is of course no surprise that Bashar Assad’s people have quickly rejected this latest opposition peace move as “incredible” and “crazy” because, as all along, it remains the regime’s contention that the future of Assad is not negotiable. He insists that he should stay in power but has offered vaguely to work with opposition forces in his version of a unity government. Assad has never budged from his astonishing assertion that he should be part of the solution when in fact he himself, and nobody else, is entirely the problem.
With Russia, Iran and now it seems to some extent Turkey, offering succor to the regime, it seems clear that it believes that the opposition peace plan is a sign of weakness, even a recognition of its defeat. And in case Assad might now be in danger of being forced to face reality, he still has the ruthless terrorists of Daesh to muddy the waters. Assad and Daesh have had a devilish relationship in which Daesh has assaulted and undermined the Free Syrian Army rather than Assad’s forces.
But as the US-led air coalition, which includes Saudi warplanes, continues to degrade the terrorists, Assad is losing his military cover and his specious political protest that it is not his own people that have risen against his dictatorship, but foreign terrorists fostered by outside powers. The truth of course is that the real terrorists in Syria are Assad and his ruthless henchmen.
