The Russian Position and a Call to Action

Media Note

Syrian Coalition

Istanbul, Turkey

September 03, 2013

The Syrian Coalition renews its call to the international community to arm the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in order to defend the Syrian people against the systematic slaughter by Assad’s forces. The Syrian Coalition calls upon the free world to take the military action necessary to restrain Assad’s killing machine and prevent the future use of chemical weapons.

The UN Security Council has proven to be ineffective and unable to protect vulnerable civilians. It has failed to carry out its duty of maintaining international peace and security. A veto by Russia or China has allowed Assad to continue slaughtering innocent civilians in Syria. The Assad regime, for the past two and a half years, has infringed on international conventions and used many internationally prohibited weaponry against the Syrian people as the whole world stood watching.

110,000 people have died thus far, nearly 7 million people have been forced to leave their homes, and almost 4 million people are now refugees living in neighboring countries. Half of the Syrian population has now fallen victim to Assad's crimes.

Assad has used chemical weapons on civilians. Only the Assad regime has the ability to store and use chemical weapons in Syria. Furthermore, all targets of chemical weapons attacks were in liberated areas, outside of regime control.

The use of heavy bombardments, artillery, ballistic missiles, and the recent use of chemical weapons proves Assad is not serious about pursing a political solution.

The Syrian Coalition reiterates that neutralizing the regime’s ability to use ballistic missiles, their air force, and chemical weapons is the only guarantee of any political solution.

There is no political solution as long as the Assad regime continues to use brutal force against innocent civilians.

The Syrian people waited for Russia and China to listen to the voice of reason and deter Assad's tyranny, but they continue to stand by the criminal Assad regime, and have become partners in the shedding of Syrian blood.

The situation on the ground in Syria does not only reflect the tenacity of the Syrian people and their willingness to achieve their goal of ridding the country of a tyrannical regime, but it also uncovers the regime’s factional schemes, devised to make Syria a failed state.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s remarks that Syria supports Russia’s initiative to set a date to discuss the creation of a zone free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East are strange and completely contradictory. Assad's Syria remains one of five countries that have not yet signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and their Destruction. The Assad regime holds the largest project of developing chemical weapons in the world and it is the first regime to use chemical weapons on a large scale against civilian areas in the 21st century.

We ask for Mercy for our martyrs, health for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.

Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.