Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat- Muhammad Rahhal, Chairman of the Syrian Revolutionary Council of the Coordination Committees has announced that the council has adopted a resolution to soon move into the second stage of the revolution, which requires arming it, and moving towards an aggressive direction.
Rahhal told Asharq al-Awsat: “We have adopted the resolution to arm the revolution, which will take an aggressive direction very soon, because what we are facing today is an international conspiracy that cannot be confronted except by armed uprising.” Rahhal considers: “The circumstances no longer allow peaceful dealing with the criminality of the regime. Moreover, confronting the ghoul that seeks the protection of the world countries requires weapons, especially as it has become evident to all that the world has not supported the Syrian uprising except by words.”
“We will declare the revolution with what we have in our hands of weapons and stones, and we will respond to the calls of the masses for arming the uprising.” Rahhal added.
With regard to the sources of weapons, the Syrian activist told Asharq Al Awsat: “The Arab countries, which are supposed to help and support us, are cowards, and they refuse to act. Therefore, we will follow the Afghan example; when the Afghans were asked: Where will you get the weapons? They answered: As long as the United States is here, there will be weapons.”
Regarding the announcement of the establishment of the Syrian National Council, Rahhal told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Those who formed the council are ghosts claiming to represent a large part of the Syrian people, while they have no relations whatsoever with the revolution. We are not part of the opposition abroad. The revolution has an internal body that decides its course.”
The Syrian activist considers: “There is a large section of countries that supports and will support the National Council and other gatherings that claim to have representative character, such as Turkey and others, because they have wide ambitions in the region.” Rahhal added: “We do not want to get rid of the criminality of Bashar al-Assad only to cling to the dictatorship of Erdogan, the Turkish leader who conspires against the Arab cause to secure his own interests.”
Rahhal denounces the talk about a Qatari-Iranian mediation to bring the opposition and the regime together, stressing that: “This mediation is some kind of foreign conspiracy against the Syrian revolution. There will be no sitting down at the same table with Al-Assad.”
Rahhal told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Qatari side can sit down with Al-Assad if it wants to do so. “We reject reform from a criminal president who has persevered with killing his people. Since the first day of the uprising our only aim and option has been to topple the regime. We will not retreat from this aim, and we will not engage in a dialog with the regime.” He went on to say, “Anyone who sits down to the negotiations table has nothing to do with the opposition. This is because the honest opposition does not sell out the blood of the martyrs of the revolution.”
Rahhal concluded by saying, “We represent 90 percent of the active coordination committees on the ground, but we have never been invited to the Qatari media organs. Qatar is pursuing the creation of the opposition it wants, and which it controls. However, we are more aware than all those abroad who are scheming conspiracies against us, and we will continue with the same momentum we launched on 14 March. We will do our job by moving into arming the revolution very soon.”