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mosque in west London disguised as a woman in a burka. Time now for | :00:07. | :00:16. | |
HARDtalk. The first formal negotiations with the Syrian | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
government and opposition leaders, as the Geneva two conference, will | :00:22. | :00:26. | |
soon. The UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has been in Damascus to meet | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
President Assad in preparation for the talks. What of the opposition? | :00:30. | :00:39. | |
Like yesterday is Monzer Akbik, the chief of staff to the Syrian and the | :00:40. | :00:48. | |
coalition. `` Syrian National Coalition. However, there is | :00:49. | :00:50. | |
disarray in rebel ranks about whether they should attend the talks | :00:51. | :00:53. | |
at all. So is the opposition scuppering the best chance to end | :00:54. | :00:55. | |
the bloodshed in Syria? Monzer Akbik in Istanbul, welcome to | :00:56. | :01:28. | |
HARDtalk. Do you accept that the only solution to the Syrian conflict | :01:29. | :01:34. | |
is a political negotiated one, not a military solution? Right now it | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
appears to be that a military solution, will be long`term. That is | :01:40. | :01:47. | |
according to the current situation and circumstances. If there is any | :01:48. | :01:55. | |
political solution that would lead to a meaningful solutions are the | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
problem, a power transition, think it should be grabbed. A power | :02:01. | :02:09. | |
transition. I will echo what your leader has said on the 3rd of | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
November to Arab League foreign ministers. The opposition will not | :02:15. | :02:21. | |
attend the talks unless the Resnick clear timeframe for a President | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
Assad to leave power. Can you clarify for as? You would go to | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
these talks as long as is a timetable for a President Assad to | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
step down? Yes, because this is exactly what Geneva two says. It was | :02:35. | :02:46. | |
issued on the 30th of June to 12. It was a document that has been agreed | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
by the five permanent members of the Security Council of the UN, along | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
with other countries who are directly involved in the Syrian | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
affairs. This document was meant for the solution of the Syrian problem. | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
It's as clear that there should be a genuine, meaningful and irreversible | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
power transition, or political transition. That may be the case, | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
but I was asking whether you will attend the talks. You know that the | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
UN envoy, also envoy for the Arab League, Lakhdar Brahimi, has called | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
upon you to attend these talks without setting any preconditions. | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
And yes, you are sitting preconditions. These are not | :03:31. | :03:40. | |
conditions, the Security Council resolution says that the | :03:41. | :03:42. | |
international conference that has to be held now should be for the | :03:43. | :03:52. | |
plantation of the Geneva communique. They are setting the rules of | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
engagement in line with what it says. We are going there not to | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
communicate from scratch, we are going back to undertake the Geneva | :04:01. | :04:11. | |
communique. This means that they should be a political transition in | :04:12. | :04:14. | |
Syria towards a transitional governing body. So you will you | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
attend these talks? They were to take place November. It is now | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
looking unlikely. What is the problem? Why aren't you going to | :04:24. | :04:30. | |
Geneva? We can say will not go. We said there are a few things that | :04:31. | :04:40. | |
need to be addressed. The starvation going on in many areas, especially | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
around Damascus, because of the siege that the regime is inflicting. | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
There are more than 2 million people under starvation siege. This has | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
nothing to do with the war, it has nothing to do with the crisis, this | :04:55. | :05:02. | |
is a war crime. We said that the corridors for food and medicine | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
should be provided. So you want to take place. I know you are referring | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
to this awful starvation, we have had some religious leaders declaring | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
that human beings can eat cats and dogs because of the starvation. I | :05:18. | :05:24. | |
use it in this as a precondition? `` are used setting this. This is not a | :05:25. | :05:34. | |
shoe in Syrian situation caused by an act of nature, it is caused by | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
the regime forces blocking those areas and not allowing food and | :05:40. | :05:42. | |
medicine to reach them. In order for us to go to the table and start | :05:43. | :05:49. | |
negotiations for the plantation of political transition, at least, are | :05:50. | :06:06. | |
2 million people should be's the Red Cross should be able to deliver food | :06:07. | :06:13. | |
and medicine to them. And what is the other thing that you want to see | :06:14. | :06:21. | |
happen before you go to Geneva? Again, the Geneva conference is for | :06:22. | :06:29. | |
the implementation of the Geneva communique. Because three political | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
transition. We want to know the tools. President Assad will not | :06:34. | :06:44. | |
allow a power transition. If he was willing to do that, he would not | :06:45. | :06:46. | |
kill the hundreds of thousands of people. What are the tools that the | :06:47. | :06:53. | |
international community will use to get President Assad out of power. | :06:54. | :07:00. | |
That is imported rice to understand. When we implemented, we want to know | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
the tools that if all be permitted with. What is the timeframe product? | :07:06. | :07:16. | |
I put it to you, you are setting certain conditions that you wanted | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
before you attended these talks. You said you are not setting conditions, | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
you have just said, we will not go unless this happens, and that | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
happens. That sounds exactly like what you are doing. You could be | :07:30. | :07:36. | |
portrayed as the ones who are an obstacle to peace negotiations. | :07:37. | :07:43. | |
Again, I disagree. These are not conditions. What is meant for the | :07:44. | :07:50. | |
conference is to uphold the Geneva communique. When you are going to | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
such an important conference you have to prepare for it. The | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
timeframe for this transition to take place, it months or weeks? Is | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
it years? It is something we need to know. This schedule, how it will be | :08:04. | :08:11. | |
implemented. The Geneva communique says the bombings should be stopped. | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
When will the bombing restocked? The beginning of the conference? The end | :08:17. | :08:32. | |
of the conference? Let me... It is about the implementation of Geneva. | :08:33. | :08:36. | |
There should be a clear schedule how this communique will be... You're | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
not getting that, but the Syrian regime says, we are happy to attend | :08:43. | :08:51. | |
these talks. A respected commentator said, to insist that the president | :08:52. | :08:58. | |
stepped down or give a timeframe as a precondition, will not work today, | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
only a favourable military balance can allow the condition. Today the | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
opposition is at a disadvantage. You are making these demands, but you | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
are not in any powerful position to see them carried out. He has set in | :09:14. | :09:25. | |
several interviews that he will stay in power and he will run in the | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
election in 2014. His Foreign Minister said that if somebody is | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
thinking that we are going to the conference in order to hand over | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
power or make a political transition, then they are completely | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
mistaken. Obviously they are not serious about this. It would bring | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
this back to what we had earlier. What are the tools that will be used | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
in order for this conference to succeed? What you that leveraged to | :09:52. | :10:03. | |
come from? You do not have the military advantage. Where will it | :10:04. | :10:05. | |
come from? The international community? Of course. For example, | :10:06. | :10:15. | |
there should be a Security Council resolution under chapter seven. When | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
President Assad used chemical weapons to slaughter people in | :10:20. | :10:26. | |
Damascus suburbs, when the US threatens to use force against him, | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
he immediately went ahead and handed over those chemical weapons. Before | :10:31. | :10:37. | |
that, in 2005, when Americans also threatened him, he withdrew from | :10:38. | :10:43. | |
Lebanon. It is obvious that this dictator, he will only cooperate on | :10:44. | :10:51. | |
the force. The force can come from the Security Council resolution | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
under chapter seven. That will happen with Russians. They have | :10:57. | :11:01. | |
blocked any kind of force being used at the Security Council. We even | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
know that nationally, within the US there is opposition. In the UK there | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
was a vote against any military action. Even the French president. | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
Where do you think is helpful come from? `` help will come from. I am | :11:19. | :11:29. | |
saying that the resolution will help the leveraged that we are talking | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
about. The Russians were part of the Geneva to Medicare. They agreed that | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
a political transition should take place. `` Geneva communique. They | :11:40. | :11:50. | |
have expressed a need for a regime change, human rights, they have | :11:51. | :11:56. | |
agreed to that. They believe the bombing should stop, the DK knees | :11:57. | :12:03. | |
should leave. No one is doing anything about what they are seeing. | :12:04. | :12:09. | |
The Americans said several times that President Assad has lost | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
legitimacy and has to go. No one is doing anything regarding that. Just | :12:14. | :12:25. | |
yesterday, secretary Kerry said that President Assad is starting his | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
people. Is it OK that people are starving to death? Is it OK that | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
people are being bombed and killed every day? We need to see a result | :12:34. | :12:44. | |
from the international community. `` Eddie `` a resolve. You have 6 | :12:45. | :12:51. | |
million people displaced as refugees. Here you are, urged to | :12:52. | :12:58. | |
attend talks, but you are setting rules. Are you expecting help from | :12:59. | :13:04. | |
Saudi Arabia? We had reports in the Washington Post that Saudi Arabia | :13:05. | :13:15. | |
will expand training locations and increased firepower being sent to | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
troops. Is that whether helpful come from? There are more than 100 | :13:21. | :13:29. | |
countries that are friends of the Syrian people. They are supporting | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
the revolution, including the US, UK, France. The Saudis are also | :13:35. | :13:43. | |
supporting the revolution. Western countries are also helping. The | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
problem is that it has always been the same case that the help was not | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
enough and the political stand was an enough. That is not just what has | :13:53. | :14:02. | |
been described around the world, this is a revolution against a | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
brutal regime. The regime has committed and is still committing | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
crimes against humanity. This is not the case of a civil law where the | :14:12. | :14:14. | |
two parties need to reach a negotiation solution. When the army | :14:15. | :14:22. | |
of any country is making this genocide and making mass killings of | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
the people, it is the responsibility of international community is to not | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
allow that. This can happen any time in history. It happened in other | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
countries, and people still regret not interfering. We lost 1 million | :14:38. | :14:48. | |
lives. You talk about the two science, but in fact around just two | :14:49. | :14:50. | |
science. If you look at the opposition, there is about a | :14:51. | :14:53. | |
thousand armed groups fighting, and even within your own coalition there | :14:54. | :14:59. | |
are people saying different things. General Idriss saying, we support | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
every political solution, but under one condition, President Assad must | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
be brought for the court. He is talking about some kind of caught | :15:11. | :15:13. | |
there. You also have 19 of the most powerful rebel groups saying we are | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
opposed to the whole process of Geneva to, and anyone attending | :15:19. | :15:26. | |
would be committing treason. You have a very disunited opposition, | :15:27. | :15:30. | |
and it is hard to work out you represent, although you can speak on | :15:31. | :15:37. | |
the half of. `` on behalf. If you go to all the parties that you are | :15:38. | :15:44. | |
talking about. First of all, the ten or 19 brigades that you are talking | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
about, they are not most of the Free Syrian Army, in fact they don't | :15:50. | :15:52. | |
represent more than ten or 15% of the Free Syrian Army. And they have | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
this opinion, and it is obvious that members of the coalition, obviously | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
every member has different opinions, this happens in all the parliaments | :16:01. | :16:04. | |
of the world it is natural. If you talk to all of these parties, | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
underground, the fighting forces, the politicians, the activist, | :16:09. | :16:12. | |
everyone will fancy the same question. That there should be no | :16:13. | :16:17. | |
solution, there will be no solution in Syria if Assad stays in power. If | :16:18. | :16:24. | |
this regime is the problem, you have to get rid of this problem in order | :16:25. | :16:27. | |
to start reaching a solution. You say the regime is the problem, let's | :16:28. | :16:34. | |
just carry on with that. But there are a lot of groups, as I said, | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
fighting against Assad. Several of them have a very clear ambition and | :16:40. | :16:42. | |
aim to set up an Islamist state in Syria, you have yourself said that | :16:43. | :16:48. | |
you are committed to a democratic future, and a secular one, for | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
Syria. But you have got these extremist elements, suicide | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
bombings, bombing power stations outside the mastics and people are | :16:58. | :17:04. | |
plunged into darkness, and this is allowing the regime to say that we | :17:05. | :17:11. | |
are a student against this kind of extremism taking hold. `` outside | :17:12. | :17:24. | |
Damascus. If some of the people, for example, they have a certain opinion | :17:25. | :17:27. | |
about the type of state that they want to have. They have certain | :17:28. | :17:36. | |
political opinions. Does this allow the Assad regime to bomb all these | :17:37. | :17:39. | |
areas and kill all these people? These are crimes. The people | :17:40. | :17:45. | |
underground, of course, any people in the whole world if you go and ask | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
many people you will find they have different comprehension of how the | :17:50. | :17:52. | |
state should be, how the politics should be. Some people, they want | :17:53. | :17:59. | |
Parliament, they want Islamic, some people want more liberal. Many | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
people with different... There are many Jihadists. We have the Greeks, | :18:06. | :18:12. | |
the Islamic Army. The point I am making is that there is a perceived | :18:13. | :18:18. | |
threat that the Jihadist are gaining the upper hand in Syria. The | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
International Crisis Group had a report coming out saying that, and | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
one person from the Brookings Institute has said that people are | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
buying into Assad's narrative that his regime is a barrier to extremist | :18:35. | :18:37. | |
groups. And that is a big one for you. That is what Assad wants. And | :18:38. | :18:45. | |
this is the doing of Assad himself. These people are not Free Syrian | :18:46. | :18:48. | |
Army, and they are not opposition. In fact, they are not fighting the | :18:49. | :18:51. | |
regime, and the regime is not fighting them, and not bombing them. | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
They come over from Iraq, Assad sends Al Qaeda elements to Iraq to | :18:58. | :19:00. | |
kill Americans, and now they come back to Syria from Iraq, and many of | :19:01. | :19:06. | |
the suspicions that the Assad regime is helping those people, because he | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
wants to enforce or strengthen that narrative. He wants to show the west | :19:11. | :19:17. | |
that he is fighting Al Qaeda. Now, in the media they are saying that | :19:18. | :19:20. | |
they are fighting Al Qaeda, but in fact they asked fighting the Syrian | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
people. We know, Human Rights Watch have documented that there are some | :19:27. | :19:29. | |
extreme rebel fighters, whichever group they might belong to, who are | :19:30. | :19:32. | |
committing atrocities against civilians. Outside left tacky in | :19:33. | :19:43. | |
August, 100 `` 190 civilians were killed. The point I want to make, is | :19:44. | :19:53. | |
what consequences that for? `` what consequence is that like for the | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
extreme opposition like you? One quote, the combination of the rise | :19:59. | :20:09. | |
of Al Qaeda, makes Assad seemed not as bad as he once seemed. Well, the | :20:10. | :20:16. | |
Obama administration, American officers are always telling us that | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
they already believe very much that there will be no solution in Syria | :20:23. | :20:29. | |
if Assad stays. Actually, John Kerry said that, I think, yesterday in | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
Cairo, when he said that you should not think that all that any | :20:36. | :20:39. | |
ceasefire could be achieved in Syria if Assad stays in power. This is the | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
position that is announced. It has also been announced by the other | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
core group members of Friends of Syria, in 11 countries, when they | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
met in London, 27th of October, and there was a London communique | :20:57. | :21:00. | |
issued, staying in the second paragraph that Assad and his | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
immediate associates, who have blood on their hands, should not have any | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
role in future Syria. This is a realistic vision, and this is a | :21:12. | :21:16. | |
vision which can lead to a real solution in Syria. So, we know what | :21:17. | :21:24. | |
our people want. We know that the Syrian people have aspirations. If | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
we go to any process, and again, we will come back to the beginning of | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
the conversation, if we go to any process, that will not achieve the | :21:35. | :21:41. | |
very thing that will lead us to a real solution to the problem, then | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
everything will be in vain. Why don't you just go, as, I mean, | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
earlier this year, General Idriss made the comment that the opposition | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
should just go to Geneva and make that amount that Assad stepped | :21:57. | :22:02. | |
down. Why did you do that? The whole world is waiting for that? This is | :22:03. | :22:12. | |
exactly what will happen. We will set the preparations now for this to | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
succeed. We want this to succeed, the preparation has to take place, | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
and this is exactly what we intend to do. Cannot put you that the | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
fractured nature of the opposition, as I was putting to you, and you | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
have the Al Qaeda affiliated groups and other extremists, so you have | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
this problem with the rising radicals are amongst the rebel | :22:34. | :22:36. | |
fighters, the increasing complexity of Syria's battlelines, this is all | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
really very bad news for your mainstream umbrella opposition | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
group, the National Syrian coalition, isn't it? Again, Al | :22:48. | :22:54. | |
Qaeda, we cannot call them opposition. They are strangers, | :22:55. | :22:57. | |
intruders who came in and they have completely different agendas and the | :22:58. | :23:04. | |
rebels who want to end the dictatorship and have a democratic | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
state. Now, yes, if you are talking about Al Qaeda, were worried what is | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
happening. Al Qaeda is a global threat, after all, and it has to be | :23:14. | :23:19. | |
dealt with globally. When the regime is bombing or the areas, and all the | :23:20. | :23:22. | |
people who are left, and the Free Syrian Army is busy fighting the | :23:23. | :23:29. | |
regime, with a massive gap in firepower between us and the regime, | :23:30. | :23:36. | |
of course there are vacuum places that the forces are able to | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
penetrate. We are worried from that penetration, were worried about them | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
being there with strange ideology, it is not an ideology that we agree | :23:45. | :23:53. | |
with. This has to be dealt with, and we need help from all over the world | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
in order to address this danger. We are unable to fight on two fronts at | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
the same time. It is so difficult. The regime front is difficult | :24:03. | :24:08. | |
enough, as I said, we have light arms, not heavy arms like regime | :24:09. | :24:15. | |
has. And we have at our backs, stabbing us in our backs, Al Qaeda. | :24:16. | :24:21. | |
Thank you very much for joining us. You are welcome. | :24:22. | :24:46. | |
Monday wasn't too bad across the country, we saw plenty of sunshine, | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
a lot of dry weather but it was certainly cold. In the rest of the | :24:53. | :24:56. | |
week it remains very unsettled. Lots of low pressure systems pushing in | :24:57. | :25:04. | |
from the Atlantic. There is our window of fine weather, Mondays | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
whether pushing away eastwards, to be replaced by streams of rain | :25:09. | :25:10. | |
bearing cloud and | :25:11. | :25:13. |