Head of Syrian National Coalition, Ahmed Jarba has presented what he called the "five No's" – conditions for the opposition’s attendance at an international conference, which he says will be imposed if the international community continues to stand by while the Syrian regime “slaughters Syrian people daily".
The conditions, as outlined by Jarba, include:
"No to negotiation, to reconciliation, to recognition, to a disabled, helpless international community."
Jarba also asked for quality weapons in addition to applying the U.N. Security Council Article VII to ensure the application of the Geneva II agreement.
Jarba outlined his conditions in a speech to the meeting of Friends of Syria in London, saying that the Syrian opposition risks losing credibility if it succumbs to international pressure to go to Geneva II without achieving the primary objective of the uprising, which is Assad’s overthrow.
“We did not come here to retell the story of our murdered people nor to reiterate to you the tragedy of using the chemical weapons, and remind you of hundreds of thousands of dead, injured and millions of homeless. We did not come to explain to you the penetration of terrorism in some areas of Syria, some supported by the regime and others because of the international community's failure to help the people annihilated for a sick dictator patient saturated with desire to power," Jarba said.
The delegation of the Coalition, he said “came to tell you frankly that we represent people who are sick of promises and revolution tired of an international community which talked a lot and did nothing. Dear Sirs, if we believed what we hear from some countries and walked away, our people will not believe and will not support us, and we will be considered traitors to the revolution and the blood of the revolutionaries. And if we said yes to Geneva II, you will hear loud echoes from the street cheering: Down to both Geneva and the Coalition. "
"I stand today in front of a group of states, we asked for no-fly zone or a deterrent blow against a regime which shed the blood of Syrians but you couldn’t, and today you want us to sell that blood which you couldn’t stop shedding. If this is what you want…we will go on to accomplish what we sought or we will be killed defending it,” he said.
“We cannot sit down at the negotiating table while some children are dying of starvation in some areas and our wives and our children being tortured in detention.”
"We will not negotiate but on the basis of a constant transition of power with all its components and its agencies and institutions, then the departure of the killer, and a specific timetable for all stages of negotiation."
Jarba stressed that it is “out of the question” that going to Geneva II means the full implementation of Geneva I and said Geneva II “cannot succeed” and “we do not accept to be part of it in order not to be players on the stage of Assad who buys a timeshare for further bloodshed of our people and the world stands among either watching or participating.”
“We cannot participate in shedding our own blood with our own hands.”
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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