Russia Prods Syria’s President Assad With Message of Growing Impatience
By DALAL MAWAD and RICK GLADSTONE
Published: July 9, 2012
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Moving further from its strict stance of nonintervention, Russia pressured President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
on Monday to be more flexible about the future of his ravaged country,
insisting that he talk with adversaries, inviting an anti-Assad
delegation to the Kremlin and restricting shipments of new weapons to
the Syrian armed forces.
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, right, spoke with
an expert on the Middle East, Juergen Todenhoefer, for a program on the
German television station ARD.
Multimedia
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SANA, via European Pressphoto Agency
President Bashar al-Assad, right, and the United
Nations special envoy, Kofi Annan, in Damascus on Monday.
Taken together, the developments appeared to signal that Russia, the
Syrian government’s most important foreign backer, may be laying the
basis for the option of eventually distancing itself from Mr. Assad, who
has repeatedly cast the uprising against him as the work of
foreign-backed terrorists and has insisted that he enjoys popular
support. Mr. Assad reiterated those themes in a weekend interview
broadcast by a German television network.
The Syrian leader, who has presided over the suppression of an uprising
that by some estimates has left as many as 17,000 people dead, has lost
much international credibility. His government has been accused by United Nations
human rights officials of severe abuses. He has provoked a possible
armed confrontation with neighboring Turkey, risked a sectarian
spillover in neighboring Lebanon and suffered a rash of high-ranking
military defections and desertions, including that of a childhood
friend, the son of a former defense minister, last week.
At the same time Mr. Assad has sought to portray himself as a willing
peace partner. He met on Monday with the special representative from the
United Nations and Arab League, Kofi Annan, whose peace plan was announced more than three months ago but has foundered.
Mr. Annan said after the meeting that they had devised a new way to
proceed, but he did not offer an explanation. “We discussed the need to
end the violence and ways and means of doing so,” Mr. Annan told
reporters in Damascus, Syria. “We agreed on an approach which I will
share with the armed opposition. I also stressed the importance of
moving ahead with a political dialogue, which the president accepts.”
Mr. Annan then flew to Tehran for talks with leaders from Iran, Mr. Assad’s last remaining regional ally.
While Russia has insisted throughout the nearly 17-month-old Syrian
uprising that it will block any foreign military intervention there, it
has shown increasing impatience with Mr. Assad. In recent weeks Russian
officials have said they were not wedded to his tenure in power and that
the Syrians must decide their own leaders. President Vladimir V. Putin
appeared to sharpen the tone of the Russian message in remarks Monday at
the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.
“We must do as much as possible to force the conflicting sides to reach a
peaceful political solution to all contentious questions,” he said. “We
must strive to promote such a dialogue. Of course, this work is much
more complex and subtle than intervening by brute force, but only this
can provide a long-term settlement and further stable development of the
region and of the Syrian state.”
Mr. Putin spoke as a delegation of opposition figures representing the
Syrian National Council, the main anti-Assad umbrella group, traveled to
Moscow at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry. Delegation leaders,
who have insisted that Mr. Assad cannot be part of any political
transition in Syria, described the visit as exploratory, to test
Russia’s willingness to be more accommodating. They were scheduled to
meet with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, on Wednesday.
“The Russians should know that the regime has now become a threat not
just to Syria but also a threat to the security of the region, and we
have started seeing that in Lebanon and Turkey,” said George Sabra, a
member of the delegation who represents Syria’s Christian community.
Mr. Sabra said: “Of course, the main headline of this visit is to
prepare for what is next. Why would the Russians want to meet with the
opposition? Why would they want to build new relations? There are
preparations for a new era.”
Samir Nachar, another delegation member, said that “we felt a shift in
the Russians’ position” during a meeting in Paris last week of the
so-called Friends of Syria group of Arab and Western countries, which
opposes Mr. Assad. “Friends told us to visit Russia to test this change,
and we also got an invitation.”
Mr. Nachar added: “We will not accept any solution the Russians will propose unless Assad leaves.”
A member of the council, speaking on the condition of anonymity,
following diplomatic protocol, said the delegation was bringing a list
of 53 Syrian officials — with Mr. Assad as No. 1 — who would have to go
for a political transition to work.
Russia’s ambivalent position on Mr. Assad appeared to be reflected on
Monday in statements by Russian military industry officials, who
suggested an intention to limit the weaponry they would furnish to
Syria.
Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, the deputy director of the Service for
Military-Technical Cooperation, was quoted by Russia’s state-run news
agency, RIA Novosti, as saying no new types of Russian weapons would be
sent until the conflict there subsided.
Vyachislav N. Davidenko, a spokesman for Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state
arms exporter, clarified in a telephone interview that Russia still
intended to service old military contracts with Syria, as it did
recently with the maintenance of Russian helicopters used by the Syrian
Army. But the message about a delay in new weapons, most notably planned
shipments of the Yak-130, a new type of military jet, was a substantive
change.
Mr. Assad said in the interview with the German television network ARD,
broadcast Sunday, that the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar
supported what he called the terrorists fomenting the violence in Syria.
He also said his leadership was not an impediment to peace.
“The United States is against me, the West is against me, many regional
powers and countries and the people against me, so how could I stay in
this position?” he said. “The answer is, I still have a public support.”
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