President Khoja's speech on latest rebel gains

Speech (Original in Arabic)

Khaled Khoja

President of the Syrian National Coalition

April 28, 2015

Dear Syrians,

Your brothers and sons in the rebel forces are going out in a blaze of glory and heroism unparalleled in the history of humankind, armed with light and few medium weapons.

Syrians have been countering weapons of mass destruction and heavy weapons, and they are overcoming them.

Rebel fighters have liberated the city of Idlib, Bosra al-Sham, Jisr al-Shughour, vast areas of the Al-Ghab Plain, and are now close to liberating all of Dara’a and Idlib provinces.

Meanwhile, regime forces in Aleppo are on the brink of becoming trapped after they, backed with the Iranian invaders, failed dozens of times to encircle the city.

The regime’s economy is in a complete shambles, and it has begun to disintegrate from within as discord among senior regime officials have reached a devastating and bloody level and have begun to affect the Assads themselves. Thugs of the Makhlouf clan, who finance Assad’s killing machine with the money they have stolen from the people, have also dropped out of sight.

The latest series of rebel victories puts us in front of a new political reality and new balance of forces. The Assad regime is now being defeated, and the Syrian people will eventually prevail.

Several rebel factions of varied affiliations have achieved spectacular gains for which Syrians have made huge sacrifices. They are gains for all Syrians, and do not belong to a particular faction as regime supporters and some biased sides falsely claim. The history of revolutions testifies that no one can hijack a revolution of a people who know its objectives and is aware of how to achieve them.

The Syrian National Coalition, which derives its legitimacy from its commitment to the objectives of the Syrian people and the revolution of freedom and dignity, stresses once again that it will not accept any political settlement that does not include overthrowing Bashar al-Assad and his gang. Nor will it engage in any negotiations or projects for a peaceful solution that do not prioritize the establishing of a fully free ruling system in Syria.

The progress made by our heroes in Idlib, Hama, Latakia, Aleppo, Dara’a, and Damascus lay more responsibility on us to exert maximum effort, unite, denounce sedition and discord, and to work hand in hand for the success of the experience of the local administration in the liberated areas.

As we met yesterday with a delegation of rebel factions representatives of forces of the revolution and provincial councils, we emphasize the need to follow every military gain with more painful blows to the Assad regime through exerting maximum efforts to make the collaborative administration of the liberated areas successful.

I salute you for the latest gains and I would like to pay tribute to the civil defense workers for the tremendous efforts they make to save people’s lives and maintain their property.

Blessed be the souls of our fallen heroes who are still alive in our hearts, and I pray for the immediate release of detainees and the recovery of our beloved Syria.

I thank the brotherly and friendly countries for generously supporting the Syrian people at all levels.

Long live Syria, free and with honor.

Victory is near, God willing.