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Syria opposition in no position to put preconditions: Pundit

Thursday, 04 February 2016 9:18 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 04 February 2016 9:17 AM ]

United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura (L) sits facing Syria's main opposition group during Syrian peace talks at the UN Offices in Geneva on February 1, 2016. (AFP photo)

Press TV has interviewed Derek Ford, a scholar and professor in Philadelphia, to discuss the temporary suspension of Syrian peace talks.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you feel about these talks which seemingly have failed?

Ford: I think the opposition is clearly acting almost like petulant children who will clearly not get what they want. I think the tide has been quite irreversibly turned in favor of the Syrian government and its allies and the demands that they have put forward to resume the negotiations are quite absurd and betray the stated and the empirically demonstrated demands and wishes of the Syrian people.

In the summer of 2014 the Syrian people turned out to the polls, they re-elected Bashar al-Assad as their President, he received over 80 percent of the vote, there were international election observers there, I have talked to some of the observers who made the trip out there to help monitor the elections and they were fair and they were free elections, opposition was able to run and Bashar al-Assad was re-elected.

And so the idea now that these opposition groups who are backed and supported and following the dictates of Qatar and Saudi Arabia and Turkey are then able to raise that completely as a pre-condition for negotiations is really …, I mean it is quite remarkable.

Press TV: One would imagine that if you are speaking from a position of strength you can put preconditions forth but many would argue that at this point it seems at least that Damascus with the help of, of course Russia and others who are trying to defeat these terrorists are in the stronger position. How do you feel about that?

Ford: I think that is a hundred percent correct and I definitely agree the opposition is in no position to be putting demands for preconditions for negotiations on the table and I think that Russian intervention which began September 30th of last year has definitely made a lasting impact, an impact that is irreversible and the gains that the Syrian Arab army has been able to make consistently in recapturing territory, the fact that they have without a doubt been greeted as liberators by the people of the cities that they are recapturing, it speaks to really the fact that whatever happens, whatever the UN negotiates, whatever the UN orchestrates, serious gains are being made on the ground and I think that ultimately [whatever] happens we have to support the forces on the ground who are actually fighting the terrorists.

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