HE the Foreign Minister Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah addresses the Geneva II conference on the Syrian conflict in Montreux yesterday.

QNA/Montreux


HE the Foreign Minister Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah said some “basic requirements” should be met in order for the Geneva II conference to succeed.  
Speaking yesterday at the Geneva II conference on Syria, he named these requirements as the implementation of the outcome of Geneva I by the statements issued by the Friends of Syria meetings in London, Istanbul and Paris, ceasing all military operations, providing safe corridors for humanitarian assistance, making efforts to reach a concrete and clear agreement and establish a specific timeframe for negotiation with implementation instruments and monitoring mechanisms.
Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, al-Attiyah said Qatar has been keen on ensuring that it does not deteriorate further. “It has spared no effort, be it through direct contact with the current Syrian regime or through active and positive participation in various regional and international efforts to put an end to the crisis and stop the bloodshed in Syria.
“In this regard, the position of the State of Qatar is based on its firm commitment to supporting the people claiming their legitimate rights in accordance with international legitimacy, the charter of the United Nations and the relevant resolutions of the League of Arab States. My country cannot defend any regime that commits massacres against unarmed civilian demonstrations, as this regime has done since the beginning of the revolution,” he told the conference.
Al-Attiyah said Qatar retains its support for the Syrian people as the crisis escalates and the death toll rises. “Today, in face of the worsening humanitarian disaster that has befallen the Syrian people and that has worsened in magnitude since Geneva I, with millions of displaced people and a death toll of innocent victims topping 150,000, a very conservative number when compared to our own estimate, that prompted the United Nations to stop the victims tally, the State of Qatar remains as committed as ever to the same principles based on which it has stood by the Syrian people, and that cannot be subject to change or compromise.
“Our duty compels us not to deceive the peoples and not to cave in at moments of despair. It is unacceptable for anyone to believe that they have come here to seal their victory over the other party. Instead, everybody are supposed to have come here to realize the rights of the Syrian people, achieve their legitimate aspirations and preserve the unity of Syria ‘s people and territory,” he added.
Al-Attiyah expressed Qatar’s appreciation for the efforts made by the sponsors of the meeting in order for it to take place, highlighting the National Coalition for the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces’ decision to participate as “difficult and courageous.”
“Such decision is of great significance for it amounts to a confirmation of and full support for the option of political solution,” he said.
“In their current ordeal, the Syrian people have faced a series of tragedies that the international community has never seen anything like. Such tragedies are still drenched with the blood of innocent people and decry the human suffering. Without any prospects of a final solution, the continuation of such humanitarian disaster is simply unacceptable.
“The challenges that this meeting is up against are enormous. But its great and lofty objective requires all parties of the Syrian people and the influential international parties to face and overcome all the difficulties with a view that the political solution, which should be adopted, promoted and guaranteed to be implemented, is based on the realization of the Syrian people’s will for the desired change.
“It is the fair demands of the Syrian people and their will for change that has led them to engage in a struggle that has forced them to make huge sacrifices in a hellish environment of repression, torture and bombardment of populated cities. It would have been possible to spare Syria and its people all those sacrifices had the stakeholders heeded the voice of reason and conscience, and adopted the approach of gradual reforms.
“It would not be an overstatement to say that the current situation in Syria poses the biggest challenge to the international community. If the party advocating the security solution continues to adopt such approach, the situation would seriously deteriorate and threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and the unity of its people. It would also pose a threat to the security and stability of the neighboring States and international peace and security.
“While the various factions of the Syrian people, like all other peoples of the world, have diverse ideologies and views, they have all been crystal clear in opting for freedom and dignity. There is no way the situation would go back in time,” al-Attiyah added.
He underlined the sacrifices of the Syrian people to achieve their demands, saying that “no other people in this world would have deserved freedom and justice more.”
“It is not permissible to take the Syrian people hostage of an international affairs, or of political expediency. The international community has fallen short in ridding the Syrian people of their ordeal, and no excuse can be made to justify such shortcoming. Any justification of such failure would not pass the test of law, truth or morality.
“Those who believe that they are in a position to disregard that fact will not achieve their designs. Invoking any excuses, such as the fight against terrorism, that would prevent addressing the root-causes of the crisis, is merely a form of disruption and a denial of the reality. What we are seeing on the ground is not a fight against terrorism but the killing of innocent civilians and an attempt to break the free and strong will of the Syrian people to realize their legitimate demands. The Syrian people will never accept breaking their will.
“Why must the fight against terrorism justify the confiscation of rights, the humiliation and torture of an entire population, which happened before the revolution has even started, and before it became an armed revolution?” al-Attiyah asked in his address.
“This is not about terrorists. The regime in Syria could not in the past, and does not currently, stand a view that is different from its own. The Wahhabis, the regime spoke about, brought generations with the best education and health standards, and have managed to launch satellites.  
“The Wahhabis did not use lethal substances to hit humans and infrastructure, as what the Syrian regime and their allies did. The Wahhabis did not starve people, when they are forced to eat dogs and cats. The regime imprisons members of any kind of moderate opposition by fabricating their charges. A mere look at the list of its political prisoners from opposition figures, journalists, artists, intellectuals, and even its loyal people who disagreed with it, shows that the issue has never been one of fight against terrorism.
“We are up against a regime that considers the invocation of the “fight against terrorism” a slogan to justify colonial control. It has however used such slogan against its own people in a bid to win the admiration of the very democratic countries whose democracy it has long ridiculed. Why does such regime, which is the actual perpetrator and sponsor of terrorism, not emulate those countries by providing its citizens with freedom and dignity before adopting their slogan of fight against terrorism?”
Concluding his remarks, al-Attiyah said the Syrian people expect concrete outcome of the meeting. “Otherwise, this historic opportunity would be nothing more than a repetition of previous international efforts that made the Syrian people pay a heavy price as a result of ambiguity and lack of mechanisms that compel the parties concerned to implement agreed upon agreements.”
“Armed with good intentions and strong determination, you are capable of putting an end to the Syrian people’s protracted ordeal and horrible pains. It is the moment for vision and for insight. History will not forgive anyone nor have mercy on anyone. It will vindicate those who stood by the Syrian people. Today, you are entrusted with the rights of the Syrian people. Such rights deserve recognition not denial, the people’s blood ought to be preserved not spilled for the sake of keeping personal positions or serving personal interests that would vanish sooner or later,” al-Attiyah said.