WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The people of Syria are currently limited to the choice between a dictatorship under the government of Bashar Assad and an Islamist theocracy under internationally recognized opposition groups, Organization for Democracy and Freedom in Syria founder Ribal Assad told Sputnik.
"It is not right that after so many years people have to choose between Islamist groups who want a theocracy, and the actual [Bashar Assad] regime in Syria. You should not be pushed to take one of those two, there should be a third way," Assad told Sputnik on Monday.
In late 2015, members of the international community convened the International Syria Support Group under UN auspices to facilitate a political transition in Syria and end the five-year civil war.
Assad, who is a cousin and political opponent of the current Syrian president, argued that a number of opposition groups were chosen by the UN, the Western powers and regional Arab states because they took up arms against the Islamic State, but share the same theocratic ideology as the infamous terror group.
"The Syrian people today… want their country to be united, so that they didn't suffer all those years to have to choose between dictatorship and theocracy," Assad stated.
The Russian leadership has been correct in identifying the broader threat of Islamism, "that you cannot just fight ISIS [Daesh], you must also fight al-Nusra, Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar ash-Sham and they are the same," Assad noted.
While the UN has not disclosed all of the opposition groups taking part in the Intra-Syrian talks, it is reported that the National Coordination Committee, the Syrian National Democratic Council and Building the Syrian State have been excluded. Moreover, Turkey has strongly opposed the inclusion of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the reconciliation talks.
