Syrians rally in support of Assad

Via : Tehran Times

large group of Syrian people have staged rallies in support of President Bashar al-Assad and expressed satisfaction with his recent speech and roadmap for ending the ongoing crisis in the Arab country.

Shouting slogans in support of Assad, the protesters said a solution that does not involve foreign intervention and preserves the rights of the Syrian people to decide their country’s future is acceptable.

“I support dialogue. Violence should stop. Those who want bloodshed to end have to listen to what president said,” said a Syrian citizen.

On Sunday, the Syrian leader delivered a lecture and proposed a new strategic roadmap and the formation of a national reconciliation conference with the aim of ending the crisis.

Assad also warned against foreign intervention and lambasted certain Western states and their regional allies for funding the militants.

Meanwhile, political parties in Syria also welcomed Assad’s proposed plan and described it as a positive step towards implementing a political solution.

The National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, however, rejected Assad’s vision for solving the unrest, saying the committee considers the Syrian president to be unrealistic.

“We refuse to participate in any dialogue meeting before the halt of violence and the release of prisoners. Then we would accept to indirectly negotiate, not have the dialogue with the government, under the supervision of the UN Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi,” the leader of the National Coordination Committee, Hassan Abdul Azim told reporters.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.

Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.