President Ahmad al-Jarba's speech, Geneva, Switzerland 23 January, 2014

Comments by Ahmad al Jarba

President of the Syrian Coalition

Geneva, Switzerland

23 January, 2014

In the name of God, the compassionate and the merciful. Good evening.

I think we can say today that the international community did the Syrian revolution some justice. Yesterday, the world witnessed the first public political confrontation between us and the regime of deception and organized crime. You have all seen the representative of the regime that gassed the children of Ghouta lecture about terrorism. What a shame! We have all heard him talk about betrayal and dependency on foreign countries when it is the regime itself that brought armies and mercenaries from outside Syria to shed Syrian blood.

Today, the whole world can see the 55,000 images published in an international independent report; images of more than 11,000 detainees who the regime tortured, killed, and mutilated in the most horrifying ways, in another stain on humanity. And believe it or not, the regime’s representatives talk about terrorism.

Today, the world stands before a people who have been tortured, their freedom and rights usurped for more than 40 years at the hands of a criminal family, and the moment they dared to ask for freedom they were answered with bullets, scud missiles, and chemical weapons. The world also stands before a regime that only understands the language of oppression; a regime that believes the screech of bullets is the only way to silence voices calling for freedom; a regime that wrongly thinks by killing the free it can kill freedom. That can never happen. They are delusional and they are now exposed. They cannot even convince their closest allies.

Yesterday, we saw at the UN a regime that has become obsolete. It was like a dead body lying on the table. It kept repeating old-fashioned claims and clichés, which evidence has unequivocally disproved, before the whole world as well as before the Syrian people.

We live in the age of globalization and open media. We heard yesterday two speeches representing a regime that belongs to the dark ages; a regime that has let out the last dark gasps of death, as dark as its misdeeds, when it kept ranting about terrorism and trying to scare the world by talking about takfiri ideology, which the whole world realizes the regime is cheaply using in its attempts to deceive.

We reiterate the need for the world to support us in our open war against the most terrorist regime in history; the regime that uses chemical weapons against innocent unarmed people but cowers before major powers. It is the regime that gang rapes and mass murders. It is the regime that brings terrorism from all over the world and unleashes it in Syria.

We saw representatives of the regime yesterday blustering on television while shying away behind the scenes. And the one thing they dream of; rather the one thing they are delusional about is to extend the lifetime of the regime, even for a while. In fact, what we heard from representatives of the regime supports the fact that the regime is not only fighting the Syrian people but also the whole modern world.

It has become certain to us, and to you, that this is a dead regime. In our country they say “to honor the dead is to bury them.” But how can we honor a regime that has not got the slightest bit of national dignity?

I think the world has become absolutely convinced that Assad cannot and will not stay in power. We have started to plan for a better future;the future of a free prosperous Syria without the regime of mass destruction; a free Syria built by generations full of hope. Yesterday, we were convinced, along with the free world, that Assad had become history.

Finally, in brief, no one should have the slightest doubt about the fact that the head of the criminal regime has become out of date. If Assad were able to continue to rule Syria we would not have been here today. And we will live and see.