MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti) – The key to resolving the three-year Syrian crisis is the UN pressuring external players to stop financing extremists in the country, Ali Salim Asad, a member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, told RIA Novosti Wednesday.
“We want the UN and the international community to put pressure on the neighboring countries, especially Turkey and Saudi Arabia, in order to make them stop the flow of extremists and gunmen,” said Salim Asad.
According to the opposition leader, the activists of the Syrian National Coalition are cooperating with government forces in some regions of the country to combat terrorists.
“But we do it not to protect the regime, but to protect Syria,” said Salim Asad.
He added that the inter-Syrian dialogue under the framework of the Geneva-2 conference will not lead to a resolution of the conflict. In the course of the second round of talks that came to an end on February 15, the parties failed to reach any agreements.
“It is clear that these negotiations were doomed from the start, because the Americans only presented their own “American” position. This is not the united opposition, which the Syrian people support, it is just a part of it,” said Salim Asad.
Representatives of the Syrian opposition blame the country’s authorities for dragging on the negotiation process. The dates for the third round of talks are not decided on yet.
Moscow has repeatedly voiced concerns over the actions of illegal armed groups in Syria, pointing out that some of them have links to international radical Islamic organizations.
The US and its allies, who have supported the opposition during the three-year conflict, have blamed the Assad regime for the rising death toll in the war-torn country and called for the Syrian leader to step down.
The civil war in Syria broke out following unrest that swept the Arab world three years ago, called the Arab Spring. According to United Nations’ estimates, over 130,000 people have died in the conflict, which has seen fierce battles between the Syrian army and Islamist militants, including foreign mercenaries and al-Qaeda-affiliated groups. Over 2.3 million Syrian citizens have been forced to flee the country.
