The official spokesman of Syrian opposition's delegation to the Geneva II conference, Monzer Aqbiq, has played down the importance of Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoubi's statements, in which he said the regime will put any agreement reached at negotiations to a public referendum.
In an exclusive interview with Al-Quds al-Arabi, Aqbiq said Zoubi's statement "is no more than an attempt to avoid the upcoming responsibilities after the regime felt huge pressure to force it to accept the transition of power."
"The departure of Bashar Assad is the only solution to end the violence and stop the bloodshed. He has to step down and accept the transitional body," Aqbiq said.
He warned the Syrian regime against showing any further intransigence, saying it will lead to the failure of the negotiations.
When asked about the absence of Syrian Coordination Commission (NCC) , in spite of attempts to include it in the negotiations, Aqbiq said that the Coalition had invited the General Coordinator of the NCC, Hasan Abdulazim, and tried to convince him to participate, but that attempts were unsuccessful.
However, he added that there is a military committee participating with the opposition, consisting of 15 members from the Free Syrian Army inn a consultancy role.
Regarding the regime's insistence on discussing terrorism, Aqbiq said that "the only terrorism that exists in Syria is the terrorism of the regime; the explosive barrels that kill the civilians are terrorism, preventing the delivery of food and medicines to the besieged areas is terrorism, torturing detainees is terrorism. The only solution we see now is the departure of this regime."
"In the first day of the second round of negotiations, the opposition delegation provided the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi with documents related to human rights. We provided evidence and studies from neutral sources about the massacres committed by the regime. We also provided a paper that contains our vision for the political solution, including the transition of power, the stop of violence and the national reconciliation", Abiq reported.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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