‘Political change needed to end violence in Syria’

The international envoy seeking a solution to Syria’s 21-month-old conflict said yesterday that political change was needed to end the violence which has killed 44,000 people, and called for a transitional government to rule until elections.

Speaking in Damascus at the end of a five-day trip during which he met president Bashar al-Assad, Lakhdar Brahimi did not spell out detailed proposals but said that only substantial change would meet the demands of ordinary Syrians.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov added to the envoy’s call for a peaceful solution when he told a senior Syrian diplomat that only a “broad inter-Syria dialogue and political process” could end the crisis.

Brahimi’s push for a transitional government suggested he was trying to build on an international agreement in Geneva six months ago which said a provisional body — which might include members of Assad’s government as well as the opposition — should lead the country into a new election.

But the mainly Sunni Syrian rebels have seized the military initiative since the Geneva meeting in June and the political opposition has ruled out any transitional government in which Assad, from Syria’s Alawite minority, plays a role.

Rebel fighters resumed attacks yesterday against the military base of Wadi Deif, which lies next to Syria’s main north-south highway linking Aleppo with Damascus. Around the capital itself, Assad’s forces have tried for weeks to dislodge rebels from suburbs which ring the east and south of the city.

“Certainly it was clear in Geneva, and it’s even clearer now that the change which is needed is not cosmetic or superficial,” Brahimi told a news conference in Damascus before leaving Syria.

“I believe the Syrian people need, want, andaspire to genuine change and everyone knows what this means,” he said.

“A government must be created... with all the powers of the state,” Brahimi added. He said it should hold power for a transitional period until elections — either for a new president or a new parliament — are held.

“This transitional process must not lead to the... collapse of state institutions. All Syrians, and those who support them, must cooperate to preserve those institutions and strengthen them,” he said.

Radwan Ziadeh of the opposition Syrian National Council dismissed Brahimi’s proposal as “unrealistic and fanciful”.

Reuters