Assad exclusion from power, betrayal of Syrian will, says scholar

Press TV has conducted an interview with Derek Ford, a scholar and professor from New York, to discuss the UN Security Council’s unanimous approval of a statement backing a new push for peace talks in Syria, including a political transition.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: When the 15 members of the UN Security Council support a transition of power in Syria, are you at all concerned that some of the prominent members at least might interpret that transition in different ways?

Ford: Yes, absolutely. I think that we have to be very clear as to precisely what this transition entails. The will of the Syrian people has been evoked as something that is important to honor. I think it is important to remember that on June 3 of 2014 that over 80 percent of the Syrian people who turned out to vote, I mean that was this over 70 percent turnout, voted for the current President Bashar al-Assad, so I think that any transition that would exclude the current president would be a betrayal of the will of the Syrian people.

Press TV: If it is at all conducive towards a solution when such vague language is used and such different interests.......?

Ford: Yes I know. That is a very good point. I think that there might be a reason to be optimistic. I think that some of the forces that have been the most adamant about the overthrow of the current Syrian government are so mired down in conflicts and are increasingly been having their own geo-political interest in the region through and by you know the growth of forces of the ISIL. The general destabilization of the region is something that is very problematic for the United States. And so I think that you know we have seen historically over the last year that the United States and John Kerry did their positions on whether Assad can stay or you know he has to go. They have actually shifted it and I think there might be some possibility that the transition would actually honor the will of the Syrian people and would not entail the installation of a proxy government for the West.

Press TV:  Staffan de Mistura and his predecessors tried to come up with some sort of political solution. What can Mistura bring to the table that they couldn’t?

Ford: I think one of the main things that has to be done is that there has to be a complete embargo an arms and soldiers entering from you know Saudi Arabia and from Qatar, spilling over the borders that is really deepening and prolonging this crisis.  I think If you look back to June of last year when the election happened many people were very hopeful that the conflict was ending and it was just a couple of months later that the ISIS and later ISIL really came out of as a serious force and it is that that has prolonged this conflict even longer and so I think that is the primary obstacle right now; is the fact that these forces that are destabilizing Syria and are really terrorizing the country are being supported and there is no embargo on money and arms flowing to these rebels.

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