West's Syria solution worse than a disease, says democracy campaigner

Caribbean Herald (ANI) Tuesday 7th February, 2012

An international campaigner for democracy in Syria on Tuesday accused the West of being hasty in calling for a regime change in turmoil-stricken Syria.

Ribal Al-Assad, the founder and director of the Organisation for Democracy and Freedom in Syria, and the exiled cousin of President Bashar-Al-Assad, said the West, after hijacking the democracy movement in Syria, could end up with a much worse solution than the present brutal regime, if they continue backing up fundamentalist forces in their hurried approach.

Delivering a talk on "Syria and the Arab Spring" at Observer Research Foundation, Ribal Assad accused the West of delegating the move for regime change in Syria to countries like Turkey which support fundamentalist forces.

"The so-called solution of the West could turn out to be worse than the disease. If the power goes to fundamentalists, that would be worse. Majority of people do not want this," Ribal Assad, who is also the chairman of the Iman Foundation, said.

Saying that he is against a military solution as mooted by the West and the Arab League, Assad said the best solution to bring about a regime change is through building up the movement of people's support and unifying the Opposition parties.

"We have been fighting for democracy for many years. Our movement began much before the Arab spring. But now, with the support of countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the West is helping fundamentalist forces. This is very bad for democracy. Those who fight for democracy in Syria has been completely ignored," Assad said.

Assad urged India, which he said has a reputation of being an independent outside so-called power blocs, to put pressure on Turkey and other countries in the region to really work for building up a democratic movement against President Assad and avoid power falling in the hands of dangerous fundamentalists.

He expressed happiness over India's stand at the United Nations where India voted with the West, but made it clear that it is against the military solution.

Assad warned that by turning Syria into a battle field, the whole region will once again become unstable and turbulent. (ANI)