Russia’s withdrawal of forces from Syria was no surprise to Damascus, Bashar Ja’afari, head of the Syrian government delegation at peace talks in Geneva, said on Wednesday. Yup, sure. With Russian withdrawal, Damascus is obviously shaking in its boots.
More than five months after they started air strikes to bolster the psychopath Baschar al-Assad’s tyrannical government, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that most Russian forces would leave, and almost half have already left, according to a Reuters calculation.
“The Russian decision to withdraw partially from Syria was taken jointly by a common decision, taken both by President Putin and President Assad. So it wasn’t a surprise for us,” Ja’afari told reporters. The giveaway? Using Putin’s name before his master Assad. With Russian withdrawal, Damascus is really shaking in its boots.
Ja’afari rejected talk of a federal model for Syria, in response to a move by Syrian Kurds to announce a federal structure of government in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria.
“What we talking about here is how keep the unity of Syria,” he said.
He also rejected a suggestion by the opposition High Negotiations Committee that the Geneva talks should move to a direct format, saying nobody should have a monopoly on representing the opposition.
He described the HNC chief negotiator Mohammad Alloush as a terrorist, saying the rebel group he belongs to, and which controls large swathes of the besieged suburbs of Damascus, was responsible for the death of many innocent people.
“We will not engage with this terrorist in direct talks, with this terrorist in particular, and so there won’t be any direct talks unless this terrorist apologizes and also shaves off his beard,” Ja’afari said.
Alloush did not gas women and children, Assad did. Nor did Allousor his group drop barrel bombs unto Alawite civilians, but Assad has dropped over 19,000 barrel bombs upon Sunni civilians. Ja’afari has it backward.
The Syrian civil war, which began with peaceful protesters marching against the terror and the tyranny of the Assad regime, has cost already 470,000 lives according to the latest and most accurate figures published by TIME Magazine.
Reuters contributed to this article.
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