How has Kerry become Assad’s spokesperson?

The cards it possesses have become few while facing a brutal regime, weak regional powers and an indifferent world.

The HNC goes to Geneva armed with the human demands. It calls upon the international community to support the Syrian people or at least to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2254 which calls to give free access to relief aid to the Syrian cities and towns besieged by Assad regime (Doctors without Borders has declared the death of 16 other people of starvation in Madaya).

The resolution also calls to stop the Russian bombardment of Syrian civilians. However, the HNC alongside other Syrian opposition groups, realize that the world is viewing the Syrian crisis through two perspectives only. The first is the Syrian refugees who are flowing to Europe while the second is the extremists who are being trained by ISIS then move away to explode themselves spreading fear and terror.  

For these reasons, Riad Hijab and his team are really in a critical position concerning the hard responsibility they have on their shoulders. It is very difficult to negotiate a ruthless regime which is compromising its own people to accept either surrender or starvation. However, to abstain from taking part in Geneva will have much more serious repercussions since the backers of the opposition are urging the opposition to participate. 

Americans should have been among those backers but Obama’s commitment to push Assad to leave power has been weakening since Geneva’s Communique in 2012. This American retreat reached a disgraceful degree after Kerry’s statement about forming a national unity government with Assad as a way to settle the Syrian crisis discarding all Obama’s speeches about Assad’s numbered days and the need to push him out of power after he became responsible for killing more than 300,000 Syrian people. 

Unsurprisingly, the hashtag #KerryTheShabih has gone viral on social media after Kerry’s statements in which he showed a clear support for Assad regime and his allies’ point of view about the Syrian crisis. It has become clear that Kerry has become the “spokesperson” of the Russians and Iranians when he spoke about the American view in Geneva. 

The worst options that the Syrian opposition may face is to be obliged to accept the regime’s scenario. It is the total defeat after 5 years of blood and killings. It is the choice which keeps Assad in power or even to accept his participation in future elections.          

Elias Harfoush in Al-Hayat